Category: Bits and Pieces

Besides all the fine links Sadie has been providing in comments, she’s been sending some to me.  Here is one of her latest goodies:   It’s biblical – stealing from Peter to pay Paul. If it were baseball, it would be a foul ball and anywhere else it’s: One lies

I know of several people of considerable net worth who have already left the U.S. to settle elsewhere. I know others who have opted out of the workforce altogether to retire on what they have, knowing that their futures look grim. This morning, I listened to the founder and former

From Sadie (Thank you!):   If Greece defaults, American banks will be on the hook for $41.4 billion, according to Bank for International Settlements data. But U.S. banks are dangerously undercapitalized. Where are they going to get that kind of money from? And it gets worse. If Portugal collapses, American

I could have done without Santorini. It’s very picturesque, but that’s all. The problem is that it’s not my kind of picturesque, meaning that once I’ve oohed and aahed over how it sits all whitely on the top of a cliff overlooking the sparkling blue waters, there’s not much left

Zach has repeatedly emphasized the point that top income tax rate brackets in the United States are lower than they have been in the past.  This ignores, of course, that other taxes (social security, state income taxes, state sales taxes, etc.) are generally higher.  But it is true, as far

Thanks for all your wishes for my little Bookworm’s recovery. She is doing well, but the clinic is holding her hostage, e.g. not giving her travel certificates, so that it gets more American dollars. That’s not me being paranoid. That’s what everyone says. Socialized medicine funded by unwitting, unwary and

Not anymore and not in Wisconsin. Do we need cursive? Or is the next generation going to have an app for that. Even my generation of baby boomers pays their bills online. E-Weddings today and who knows E-Divorces tomorrow. Is this the beginning of the end of handwriting analysis? And

Spenditol http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBoYYc1APr8&feature=player_embedded

We have some access to the NYT on the ship, so I caught the headline it gave to its report yesterday about Anders Behring Breivik, the man who carried out the slaughter in Oslo. Right there, in the lede, the NYT id’d him as a “Christian fundamentalist”. This was interesting

My son and I spent the morning on a cruise ship-sponsored tour to Olympia. As I wrote Mr. Bookworm, who is still at the hospital with my other little Bookworm, I don’t regret going, but it’s questionable how much they actually missed. As was the case with Olympia in ancient times,

Sadie suggested the following topic for discussion, which fits nicely into the discussion we’ve been having: “Interesting article and graph at NRO. We have spent considerable time discussing the debt ceiling, entitlements and what we believe should or should not happen. So many facets to the American way of life

With more information emerging from Oslo, I understand that the killer, a man with the blood of almost 100 innocents staining his hands, was a fierce opponent of Islamic immigration in Europe and that he claimed to be a Christian. We can anticipate that foes of illegal and unlimited immigration,

I’d like to tell you how beautiful Corfu is — but I can’t. I’d like to tell you about the sparkling waters — but I can’t. I can tell you, however, that they’ve been very attentive at the clinic where my little Bookworm is having her appendix removed. She’s in

The other day, a Republican spokesperson, I think it was Michele Bachmann was asked what bills the Republicans were saying should not be paid if the debt ceiling is not extended.  She determinedly refused to answer.  But, if the Republicans are going to actually refuse to lift the ceiling, they

We spent the day in and around Dubrovnik, in Croatia, on the northeastern edge of the Adriatic, roughly across the waters from Venice. If you like your history old, Dubrovnik is the perfect place to visit, because it is a gem-like medieval walled city. The current version of the city