In Haruki Murakami’s surrealist fantasy The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Lolita-esque spitfire May Kasahara recalls a house on the block where she used to live that carried a distinct air of malice. It was later known that an unspeakable act occurred there in the Miyawaki family, dubbing the outcast property the “Hanging House.” But it wasn’t just the act of what happened that had the town thoroughly spooked. It was the aftermath. Continue reading
The other day I had a debate with a math student. He defended the mathematical soundness of the Laffer Curve and, by extension, the efficiency of supply side economics. Maybe the Laffer Curve has theoretical soundness, but it’s never been shown to work at levels of taxation like ours. Furthermore, there’s a real human cost when attempts have been made to try to make it work here. That’s even provided that the people keeping so much money in lower taxation actually keep it in the same curve. If we’ve learned anything from Mitt Romney and his Cayman residing millions, it’s the one glaring human reason as to why the Laffer Curve will never work anywhere. As for “efficiency”; let’s just say that my friend had a limited understanding of what that word means in the field of economics. These points were all lost in the morass of my friend’s Math Chat. Continue reading
Gary Francione, a prominent legal scholar and animal rights activist, has written a new piece for Truthout.org conflating the actions of Michael Vick, Ann and Mitt Romney, and all you people who had a cheeseburger this weekend. Continue reading
Hey, baby. What’s your sign? Never mind. Get to work. Continue reading