Tax the rich! Tax the rich!

Who benefits from the federal government?

An interesting link about who uses a majority of the resources offered by the federal government. The author comes to the conclusion that the poor benefits from the federal government the most. After reading this article, I think like when you do a lot of this off the cuff calculations, the answer you get depends on your selection criteria. In this case, I feel like there is a lot of fudge factor, and if you wanted the opposite answer, you would just choose to include a few more things, and exclude others. I like seeing these calculation done, but for seeing the thought process that the person is using, and rarely convinced by the final purported outcome.

Skeptical Simon

Magna Carta, Magna Awesome.

A copy of the Magna Carta was sold for $21.3 million.

For a good book on the time period of the Magna Carta, I recommend 1215. The Magna Carta is a very important collection of documents in terms of history of the rule of constitutional law. I'm glad that somebody in American thought it was important to own a copy for public display. That's super cool for a history fan boy as myself.

How to kill fleas

Best Flea Killer

Apparently, the best killer of fleas is the common vacuum cleaner. Wow, that's really good in terms of making sure your house doesn't have fleas living in it. However, I know my mother spends a fair amount on flea control for our cats. It's a fluid drip that we put on the back of the neck for each of the cat that suppose to disrupt the bleeding cycle of fleas and that it lasts for about 1 month.

I wonder if this means it would be more effective to use the vacuum cleaner on the cats to control the fleas. However, the key problem with this, as every cat owner knows, is the inherent danger of trying to hold a cat still when near a turned on vacuum cleaner. Whatever you save in flea powders or fluids you will make up in emergency room visits due to tooth and claw.

Are CEO overpaid?

Even CEO think CEOs are overpaid?

Are CEO making way too much money? This is an article I would expect to read from Eric, but I ran across this one reading the new this morning. In general, I feel that as a culture, we tend to favor paying the higher ups more in regards to their work than the people in lower levels jobs. Is this because they work harder, are more difficult to replace, or bring more to the table. Perhaps, but I doubt much of that could be proven. It probably represents the way we, as a culture, look at organizations. The captain of the ship is always given the largest of the shares, right. Fewer people can run a business, or a large corporation than can mop the floors, right? And even more to the point, as a society, we have decided to pay those positions more as well. It's like people who complain about the large contracts of sport stars. They get that money because somebody is willing to give them it because they believe they are worth that amount of money.

For another viewpoint, I sought guidance among the cutting edge business man of his day, Andrew Ryan. I believe this should give us guidance on this issue.

I am Andrew Ryan and I am here to ask you a question:
Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his own brow?

No, says the man in Washington. It belongs to the poor.
No, says the man in the Vatican. It belongs to God.
No, says the man in Moscow. It belongs to everyone.

I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something
different. I chose the impossible. I chose…
Rapture.

—Andrew Ryan

Thank God it's not Friday?

Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:56am EST

By Philip Pullella

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian court has ruled that a couple could not name their son "Friday" and ordered that he instead be called Gregory after the saint whose feast day he was born on.

"I think it is ridiculous they even opened a case about it," the family's lawyer, Paola Rossi, told Reuters by telephone from the northern city of Genoa Tuesday.

Friday/Gregory Germano was born in Genoa 15 months ago. The parents registered him as Friday in the city hall and a priest even baptized him as Friday -- unusual in Italy since many priests insist that first names be of Christian origin.

"We named him Friday because we like the sound of the name. Even if it would have been a girl, we would have named her Friday," the boy's mother, Mara Germano, told Reuters.

When the boy was about five months old, a city hall clerk brought the odd name to the attention of a tribunal, which informed the couple of an administrative norm which bars parents from giving "ridiculous or shameful" first names to children.

The tribunal said it was protecting the child from being the butt of jokes and added that it believed the name would hinder him from developing "serene interpersonal relationships."

The Germano family appealed but lost their case this month and the story was carried on the front page of a national newspaper Tuesday.

When ordered to change the name, the parents refused and the court ruled the boy would be legally registered as Gregory because he was born on that saint's feast day.

"I really doubt this would have happened to the child of parents who are rich and famous," the boy's mother told Reuters, recalling that some famous Italians had given their children unorthodox names such as "Ocean" or "Chanel."

The appeals court ruled against Friday because it recalled the servile savage in Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe and because superstitious Italians consider Friday an unlucky day.

"I am livid about this," the boy's mother said. "A court should not waste its time with things like this when there is so much more to worry about."

"My son was born Friday, baptized Friday, will call himself Friday, we will call him Friday but when he gets older he will have to sign his name Gregory," she said.

Japanese government and UFOs

Okay, I'm really confused over this article. I think they don't believe in UFO, although it is difficult to tell from the way the article is written. I don't know if the Japanese as whole either, do or not do believe in UFO after reading this article.

It wouldn't be surprising to me either way, because I believe it is rare nowsday when you see people or governments applying critical thinking skill to many topics of paranormal claims. An appeal to the public under the guise of fairness of equal viewpoints seems to be the soup-de-jour (or slip of the Kool-Aid). They would probably set up a governmental body that would research UFO, and they would find nothing (at great expense), release a report that sums that up, and then the believers in UFO would claim cover-up.


Yes UFOs do exist, government spokesman says

Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:58am EST

TOKYO (Reuters) - Yes, UFOs do exist, Japan's top government spokesman said Tuesday. The comment by chief cabinet secretary Nobutaka Machimura drew laughter from reporters at his regular briefing on government policy.

Earlier the cabinet, responding to an opposition lawmaker's question, issued a statement saying it could not confirm any cases of unidentified flying objects.

"This is an issue that the nation is interested in -- it is a defense issue and a confirmation operation needs to take place," Ryuji Yamane, a lawmaker from the main opposition Democratic Party who submitted the question to the cabinet, told Reuters.

"But the government does not even try to collect information necessary for the confirmation."

Machimura, asked about the government's view on UFOs at a regular press conference, told reporters that the government can only offer a stereotyped response.

"Personally, I definitely believe they exist," he said, apparently tongue in cheek.

But the prime minister stuck to the official view.

"I have yet to confirm (that UFOs exist)," Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told reporters later in the day.

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota and George Nishiyama, Editing by Michael Watson)