Nugatory, Really? Really?

Martin Wolf of the Financial Times has occasionally written some compelling economic critiques. I think I first read something scathing by him courtesy of a Krugman link.
So anyway, he's reporting that two Very Important Economists — VIEs — say higher tax rates for the rich must include increases in capital gains taxes, although he strangely declines to use that term. (Maybe there are other kinds of income from capital, I wouldn't know.)
Anyhoo, thanks for the Word O' Teh Day, Martin.
Nugatory: without power.

At present, the far lower taxation of income from capital than from work makes the taxation of ultra-high incomes nugatory.

Oh, yeah. The bottom line:

Historically, the emergence of huge inequalities in wealth and political power has destroyed democratic republics, turning them into entrenched oligarchies, instead. This is bad politically. It is almost certain to be bad economically, too, as the oligarchy uses its power to reduce economic competition...The case for reform has become overwhelming. 

The Financial Times. The Financial Times.

Anecdote Is Not Data

and other logical fallacies may be found here.
Don't know about you, but I really need a handy guide.

Election Year Gold

"So remember, Americans, when you step into that voting booth, ask yourself, 'Who should I vote for, the guy I like. Or the guy I don't like'."

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

A Second-Best Mercedes

The best car ad evah has apparently been taken down from Craigslist, probably because once Andrew Sullivan linked it, the servers went on strike.
But here's a pretty good one for your amusement on this intermittently sunny but still ass-freezing cold last Friday in April.

Richard Nixon once said "Human existence is in the struggle." You could buy a car that will try and hide you from all the dangers of the world, but it won't save you; all the alarms, all the air bags, and the low sodium lattes in the world won't save you. Some day you will die. But at least you can die with the wind in your hair.
Alternatively it would make a good parts car.

Me Tarzan, You Fido

Dogs answer an age-old question, how come us and not the Neanderthals?

The dominance of modern humans could have been in part a consequence of domesticating dogs—possibly combined with a small, but key, change in human anatomy that made people better able to communicate with dogs.

I turn to observe the crew of three on the couch (Gus, who has declined to go outside yet, it is raining), the floor (Fat Mama Cooper, the canine meatloaf) and on my bed (Baby Shorty, nothing but the best for her). I believe they would help me survive if need be, they recognize mutual benefit.
On the other hand, Neanderthals just weren't all that smart, they hadn't innovated in 250,000 years, dogs or not. Dogs were just one of our new tools.

The Catholic Bishops

Here's Sullivan's take.

This will be their cause - not saving universal healthcare from repeal, not bringing illegal immigrants out of the shadows, not protecting the poor, but affirming that religious liberty is at stake if they cannot keep the pill from their female employees' insurance, 98 percent of whom use it at some point in their lives anyway.

Depression: Not So Depressing Anymore?

Nice long piece in the NYT about the long history of diagnosis, theory and treatment. I missed some key elements going from pg. 1 to pg. 7 and rushing this to you, because I don't have time to read it all right now. Something about cell death in the hippocampus.
You're welcome.

My Confirmation Bias

is to find as much evidence as I can that Freud was a fraud.
I never expect to learn otherwise. It's hard, baby, life is struggle.
Oh, wait...

...although Freud’s work is still a big part of pop culture and everyday language – Freudian slips, repression, anal retentiveness, etc. – it’s mostly bunk, and you know this because psychology became a proper science over the last century with rigorous lab work published in peer reviewed journals. Today, scientists are still slicing away at the problem of consciousness and the ego, or what we now call the self, and that brings us back to Roy F. Baumeister and his bowl of cookies.

I love this stuff, I really do. Especially when it tells me that my cigarette craving is not only normal, but mostly because I am ego depleted.

OMG, A Black Man In The White House!

I went to some trouble to get this recent picture of Obama sitting on the Rosa Parks bus while visiting the Henry Ford Museum, so I hope you appreciate it. Also.

Comment O' Teh Day

publishermike

If the GOP had its way, it would declare anyone who could not mark their ballot with their penis ineligible to vote.

Comment on a story about the Dems bringing up the Violence Against Women Act and the Republican objection to added protection for same-sex couples and illegal immigrants. Those victims will just have to relax and enjoy it apparently. 

It's Slacker Week

at Contrarienne's, not that I've been slacking, but I did blow off two regular and sometimes major activities just so I could, uh, slack off from being in constant mental and physical motion.
And as the enclosed analysis of a new entertainment trend toward young female losers indicates, Virginia Woolf says it's okay.

 "It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top."

So put down that pen, that frying pan, that basket of laundry, that phone, that book. Hide your car keys.
Let your mind wander.
Turn off the internet. Well, on second thought, leave the internet on. It's life itself.
If I start making a movie about a 68-year-old retired woman who spends her days online and at the beck and call of three slacker dogs,  could I sell it to HBO?
 Uh, no.
Well, never mind, dear. Is there any more ice cream?

Smitten With Swinton

Tilda Swinton's great-grandmother. That is all.

Hospital 101

While we're at it, why not?
This guy can write. I hope he lives.

Even the light slanting in through the windows seems wan, drained of all radiance, as if it had undergone a bloodletting measured in lumens. 

Journalism 101

All the Very Serious People probably know who Moe Tkacik is, but I didn't until I ran across a link to her scathing piece about The Atlantic inside a Metafilter comment.
As a friend once said about me (not my writing), "difficult but worth it." (Thanks, friend. I cherish that.)
But back to Moe.

I did not really identify with the cool-hunting, brand-building, sneaker-collecting generation of professional consumers I worked over for trend-story ideas, but neither did my colleagues in the bureau seem to identify with the megalomaniacal talent agents and casino magnates or the disgruntled aerospace engineers and short sellers they talked to all day.

My Penguin, My Love

I know it's so 2005 or something but still, I'd like to wake up to this face every day. I would be laughing every morning. And stinking of fish.

I Am Incognito

UPDATE: Facebook friends to the rescue. I have never been exactly what you'd call grateful for FB before. It's an odd feeling.

I have screwed up my email and can't seem to access my gmail account either. Aargh! I think I will have to pay for help. F****!

'Bugs Bunny Is My Muse'

As good as any, Billy.

'The Bank Doesn't Want Your House'

That's the conventional wisdom. I've been hearing it for four years. And finally, the bank made me a deal, made possible by a federal program, not its own deep aversion to taking back the property.
But consider this:

There are close to 650,000 foreclosed properties sitting on the books of lenders, according to RealtyTrac, a data provider. An additional 710,000 are in the foreclosure process, and according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, about 3.25 million borrowers are delinquent on their loans and in danger of losing their homes.

Now, it seems, the bank has more reasons than ever to want your house.

Not My Art

So far, thanks to the generous welcome of a terrific group of women and a few men in Kitsap County, I have learned that some visual arts require meticulous, painstaking attention to detail. Not to mention a steady hand.

Cannot draw a straight line if my life depended on it. Nice colors, though.

So far, I'm better off doing larger, less precise things. I'm not a printmaker, for sure. Nor am I likely to become a successful decorator of miniatures through the medium of wax on eggs. It was fun though. And exhausting.

Cooking Tip #101

Do not allow the cockatiel near the chocolate fountain.