mitchmaitree

( Peterjr1961 photo .) "Throughout Egyptian history, the king is seen to be a force keeping disorder at bay through his relationship with the gods and his strength and power." (Cheryl Perry, Egypt: Land & Lives of the Pharaohs Revealed , p48) That's seemingly the great fear of all societies: disorder. The implied threat of bucking a string central government is that chaos would reign. And so it has been for thousands of years. As the Israelites told the prophet Samuel in the face of the... Read Full Story

In the video above, Max Blumenthal interviews tea partiers at the Washington gathering last September. As Blumenthal no doubt intended, many of the interviewees make nonsensical comments, contradict themselves, or take absurd positions. Comments about the video from liberals suggest that they see the Tea Partiers as a force to be feared, irrational and potentially violent. When I watch this video, I see people who are tired, who know they don't like what they see, but who have no idea... Read Full Story

This is the third in a series written by D. J. Mitchell and Susan Cain. Susan has over 100 Muslim and Arab friends on Facebook, from whom she is learning about their religion, their culture, and what it is like to be an average citizen in the countries in which they live. One evening on Facebook, Susan saw the above video posted by Kareem Wagdi, one of her newer Arab friends. The video shows quotations, followed by photos of the Hollywood stars to whom the quotes are attributed... Read Full Story

If your train's on time, You can get to work by nine And start your slaving job to get your pay If you ever get annoyed, Look at me I'm self-employed I love to work at nothing all day... (Bachman Turner Overdrive, performed here by the Guess Who) "An upcoming wave of new workers in our society will never work for an established company if they can help it. To them, having a traditional job is one of the biggest career failures they can imagine." So wrote Michael S. Malone... Read Full Story

Asymptotic Life is changing! Since its inception, AL has been hosted on GoDaddy.com using their QuickBlog (now Quickblogcast) software.  I was never very happy with it, and over the years it's gotten slower, less reliable, and more cumbersome to work with.  Meanwhile, I worked on two other blogs that used Wordpress.  There really is no comparison.  Now that my renewal date is approaching, it's time to make the move.  Starting June 1, I will have moved completely into the Wordpress... Read Full Story

( Mliu92 photo .) “We know that our dependence on foreign oil endangers our security and our economy.  And the disaster in the gulf only underscores that even as we pursue domestic production to reduce our reliance on imported oil, our long-term security depends on the development of alternative sources of fuel and new transportation technologies.” --President Obama But despite these forward-looking words, and with a nod to conservation, the President made clear that alternative energy is... Read Full Story

( Ava Whalen photo .) Congress is hard at work extending a set of popular tax breaks , including tuition credits, sales tax credits, real estate tax credits, credits for construction of housing developments, and lots of credits to encourage large corporations to hire new employees. But in a little-noticed section, Sec. 413, Congress proposes additional taxes on Subchapter S corporations.  Specifically, they [propose that under certain conditions, 100% of S Corp income will be subject... Read Full Story

I recently received a post card from the IRS.  It promised me a nice tax credit, "up to 35%," if I offered my employees health insurance. As it happens, I do offer my employees health insurance.  So I should be expecting a nice, big tax credit, right? Um, no.  The amount of my tax credit will be zero.  That's because there are a few catches: You're only eligible for the maximum credit if you have 10 or fewer full-time employees, and if you pay them an average of $25,000 or less.  The... Read Full Story

( Jenniferrt66 photo .) As our economic system stumbles, critics and proponents of capitalism once again resume their debate.  Personally, I don't see that any system has yet been created that successfully improves upon the free exchange between willing buyer and willing seller.  But clearly when global corporations swallow up local businesses or drive them out of business through unethical business practices, when they buy and sell governments, something is broken. As a student of the... Read Full Story

With unemployment at the highest rates since the 1980s , and some California counties reporting it may not look like the economy is improving.  But The Kiplinger Letter offers some good news: Banks have "pots of money" to lend, and they are beginning to lend it. Businesses are holding much of their assets in cash, ready to invest it. Auto sales are beginning to rebound. But will it be enough to carry the economy as federal stimulus winds down later this year? Seperately... Read Full Story