Any wonder I do not want to live in Oklahoma…
Click hyperlink below to read story on Slate.com
Oklahoma Tea Party Candidate Supports Stoning Gay People to Death
Calculate Where Your Tax Dollars Go
The link below is a page on the whitehouse.gov website that will calculate where
your tax dollars go based on what you have paid in or some common income levels. I found it very interesting and informative to see how my tax bill is divided up.
Your 2010 Federal Taxpayer Receipt
I think we need to quit our bellyaching about Foreign Aid and a bunch of other smaller programs. Their bite on the Federal budget is minimal.
Below is a link to a somewhat pessimistic article about the tax calculator form Slate.com
Can I Get a Receipt for That? An idealistic—and probably hopeless—plan to educate Americans about the budget by sending them itemized “tax receipts.
The Tiny Island Nation of Mauritius
Mauritius is an island nation off the west coast of Africa. Up until 1968, it was a colony of Great Britain. Chaos and 
poverty were predicted for post independence, but that did not happen. Quite the opposite. It is a wonderful case study in what can happen if you forgo maintaining the gap between rich and poor, and stop wasting money on military.
Every time I think of the senseless, unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I think of how that money could have been put to good social use in this country or other countries. I have no idea what we bought for our blood and treasure.
Below is the link to an article at Slate.com about this little country. Is is short, quick read and gives a little fodder for thought.
Mauritius Welcomes You – The Official Site for Mauritius
Wealth Inequality = Social Problems
Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times Equality, a True Soul Food
He is summarizing a British report on the societal effects of wealth inequality.
Currently in America “the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans possess a greater collective net worth than the bottom 90 percent.” I do not understand why everyone, except the 1%, is not shocked and up in arms over this fact. But that is me.
The basic premise of the study, backed up by tons of data is this. With great wealth inequality you create a wide variety of personal and social stressors. There are increases in crime, Continue reading “Wealth Inequality = Social Problems”
Only 6% of Scientists are Republicans
This article is drawing the conclusion that because most scientist are Democrats 
(or at least not Republicans) it draws into question the science behind some big issues today.
Climate change is the example given. Whether you believe that climate change is happening splits down party lines. Which makes me wonder about how much our politicians are really examining the issues, but that is another topic. The article wonders if science is pushing science or perhaps politics (and funding) is pushing science.
I have another question. Scientists on the whole are a very well educated group. They are trained to look at most things in a critical and factual manner. If you do not know the answer they are trained to search for it, or say we really do not know at this time.
Given the above, I find it very interesting that only 6% are Republicans. But that is just me!
Article at Slate.com
Most scientists in this country are Democrats. That’s a problem.
Parenting – An Addiction
Well this pretty much explains why we do such a crazy thing as have kids…
“Shankar Vedantam of Slate hypothesizes that people continue to procreate, despite overwhelming evidence that parenting isn’t very fun, for much the same reason that cocaine users can’t quit: they’re addicts.”
See link below.