New Lawsuit over San Diego Sea Lion Poop
Government injunction against The Little Sisters of the Poor
Justice Sotomayor Blocks Contraception Mandate for Catholic Order of Nuns
Four things you might not know about dark matter
How Gun Accidents Happen
People who pursue unhappiness
Some people are only happy when they are unhappy, angry, or in a mess
Families: The two-parent factor
E.R. Costs for Mentally Ill Soar, and Hospitals Seek Better Way
Via Vanderleun:
“The Great Virtue Shift.”
Almost every act regarded in the mid-20th century as a vice was, by the opening of the 21st century, considered a virtue. As gambling, obscenity, pornography, drugs, divorce, homosexuality, abortion and sneering disaffection became The New Virtue, government at all levels began to move in on the action, starting with casinos and currently involving, in several states and the District of Columbia, an officially approved and bureaucratically managed narcotics trade...
2013: The Year of Shamelessness - America reached new depths of depravity this year — but just wait for 2014 to outdo it.
De Blasio Draws All Liberal Eyes to New York City
Obama’s pollster suggests reporters avoid citing polling data in 2014
Obama’s 2014 War on the Poor - More unemployment benefits and a higher minimum wage? Couldn’t be worse for struggling Americans.
The Economic Hokum of 'Secular Stagnation' (WSJ paywall)- Blaming the market for the failure of bad government policies is no more persuasive now than it was in the 1930s.
Hospice firms draining billions from Medicare (h/t Dr. X)
Democrats Gear Up to Portray Chris Christie as Sexist Ahead of 2016
10,988,269: 2013 Closes With Record Number on Disability Getting Highest-Ever Monthly Benefits
...the next time you see/read/hear about "dark money" and ALEC or the Kochs
in your media outlet of choice, and you don't see anything about Tides,
it's time to fire your media outlet.
McArdle: Change Is Obamacare's Only Certainty
Taking Office, de Blasio Vows to Fix Inequity
Easily done. Tax the businesses, the prosperous, and the middle class until they move out. Camden, NJ, has excellent economic equality, while NYC is the place half the planet would like to move to for risk and opportunity. And for the generous Welfare, too.
From an important essay by George Friedman: The Crisis of the Middle Class.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the median income allowed you to live with a single earner -- normally the husband, with the wife typically working as homemaker -- and roughly three children. It permitted the purchase of modest tract housing, one late model car and an older one. It allowed a driving vacation somewhere and, with care, some savings as well. I know this because my family was lower-middle class, and this is how we lived, and I know many others in my generation who had the same background. It was not an easy life and many luxuries were denied us, but it wasn't a bad life at all.
Someone earning the median income today might just pull this off, but it wouldn't be easy. Assuming that he did not have college loans to pay off but did have two car loans to pay totaling $700 a month, and that he could buy food, clothing and cover his utilities for $1,200 a month, he would have $1,400 a month for mortgage, real estate taxes and insurance, plus some funds for fixing the air conditioner and dishwasher. At a 5 percent mortgage rate, that would allow him to buy a house in the $200,000 range. He would get a refund back on his taxes from deductions but that would go to pay credit card bills he had from Christmas presents and emergencies. It could be done, but not easily and with great difficulty in major metropolitan areas. And if his employer didn't cover health insurance, that $4,000-5,000 for three or four people would severely limit his expenses. And of course, he would have to have $20,000-40,000 for a down payment and closing costs on his home. There would be little else left over for a week at the seashore with the kids.
And this is for the median. Those below him -- half of all households -- would be shut out of what is considered middle-class lifE...
10,988,269:
2013 Closes With Record Number on Disability Getting Highest-Ever
Monthly Benefits - See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/10988269-2013-closes-record-number-disability-getting-highest-ever#sthash.sYxSrXaK.dpuf
