Month: January 2011

MEMOIRS: Michael Angelo and me

Sunday May 20. 1972 was our first day in Rome. I had unintentionally but carelessly affronted my mother-in-law June at the hotel breakfast table and my wife Terry and mother Hannah offered me condescending sympathy for my faux pas. We had been traveling through France, Switzerland and now Italy together and until that morning I had evaded Mother’s suggestion that I take a bus tour with them.

PATRIOT-NEWS

Article “Businesses on hook to pay U.S. for unemployment benefits” states: “Pennsylvania has borrowed $3.1 billion from the federal government to pay unemployment benefits… “Employers will pay about $35 per worker more this year and an additional $21 per employee next year in state and federal taxes to repay the loans. Business owners say that […]

Bill Gates sets goal of wiping out polio

From USA TODAY: Half a century after the March of Dimes put the 20th century’s most feared childhood disease on the road to eradication, Bill Gates on Monday will declare polio his top priority and challenge world leaders to finish the job before the disease roars back. “We are on the threshold of eliminating polio […]

Time to end the Arab exception

FINANCIAL TIMES:  Appointing a former air force commander – like Mr Mubarak himself – as his new prime minister, and then naming his intelligence chief as his likely successor, is no cure for civic insurrection. The ageing pharaoh might as well try to blot out the sun with his finger. Egypt’s young rebels, who have […]

We’re better off than Egypt – Right?

From the HUFFINGTON POST: A tourist who was interviewed last night from Cairo spoke for millions of his fellow Americans when he said he couldn’t imagine living a country like Egypt. It is hard, isn’t it? Imagine: A government run by and for the rich and powerful. Leaders who lecture others about “sacrifice” and deficits while cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy…

SUNDAY NEWS

An “In my opinion” column by James A. Henry entitled “Reaganomics was a failure” states: “Reagan’s economic policies sent the federal deficit to never-before-seen levels. His tax cuts did nothing but expand the gap between the wealthiest Americans and the middle class. The poverty rate during Reagan’s presidency actually rose. The great boom in American […]

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

An article “Lancaster school’s bid to aid black students sparks claims of bias” reports:    “When Dominique Miller walked into his newly assigned homeroom at McCaskey East High School in Lancaster last month, his teacher asked if he and the other students noticed anything unusual. “‘No females in the class’, one student said, while Miller, a 16-year-old […]

How to avoid paying corporation income taxes

From President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on January 25:

“Over the years, a parade of lobbyists has rigged the tax code to benefit particular companies and industries. Those with accountants or lawyers to work the system can end up paying no taxes at all. But all the rest are hit with one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. It makes no sense, and it has to change…

Specter and Murtha should give up library grants

I think that it would be appropriate to publish an open letter requesting Tom Corbett to invite fellow Republicans Arlen Specter and John Murtha to give up the combined $20 million earmarked for them in Rendell’s 2010-2011 Budget.  The amount is small, but such an action would be highly symbolic, since both new debt financed projects ($10 million for an […]

Egypt’s military in a quandary

From ALJAZEERA: …The Egyptian military could follow the Tunisian military by refusing orders to shoot at demonstrators or impose the curfew.

The military can replace Mubarak with a temporary emergency governing council or leave it for civilian opposition groups to form government in consultation with the military.

Addendum to The Healing of America

R. R. Reid has added an explanation of the 2010 health reform bill to his bestseller “The Healing Of America, A Global Quest For Better, Cheaper, And Fairer Health Care” which was originally published in 2009. To wit:

“As we’ve seen throughout this book, though, the principle of ‘guaranteed issue’ can only work if it is coupled with another rule, the ‘individual mandate’ – that is, the requirement that everybody buy insurance. The insurers need the mandated customer base to have a broad enough risk pool to pay for guaranteed issue. All the other rich countries figures out this connection long ago; the 2010 act marks the first time the United States has coupled these two requirements…

George W. Bush: I’m done with politics

Republican candidates hoping for some high-profile help on the campaign trail next year shouldn’t look to George W. Bush. The former president told C-SPAN he’s done with politics and all its trappings. “I don’t want to go out and campaign for candidates,” he told Brian Lamb in an interview airing this weekend. “I don’t want […]