Month: March 2011

Their Fair Share

Via Carpe Diem[*1] comes this nugget of info from the Tax Foundation[*2] , reporting income distribution and taxation figures collected by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD):

The share of total market income of the richest 10% of Americans: 33.9%

The share of total taxes paid by the richest 10% of Americans: 45.1%

Exit question: If paying 11.2% more than would be “fair” (i.e. if everyone paid the same percent of their income in taxes) isn’t enough for the rich to pay, how much more would be enough?

Look at the numbers again:

Income: 33.9%;

Taxes: 45.1%.

If these numbers were talking about the poorest 10% . . . or the poorest 50%, most people would be outraged. “The rich should pay their fair share!!!”

So, when you hear that the rich should pay their fair share, the first question to your lips should be “OK, then, what’s fair?”

The ponderous ship of science begins to turn . . .

. . . away from the increasingly dubious extreme claims of “anthropogenic climate change” and towards honestly looking at the available data–that’s all of the available data–as is required to do good science:

From Anthony Watts’ Watts Up With That blog:

The British government’s chief scientific adviser, John Beddington, has called for more openness in the global warming debate. He said climate scientists should be less hostile to sceptics who questioned man-made global warming. He condemned scientists who refused to publish the data underpinning their reports. He also said public confidence in climate science would be improved if there were more openness about its uncertainties, even if that meant admitting that sceptics had been right on some hotly disputed issues.

This being part of a call for interested scientists to participate in increased online peer review of not only the findings of climate scientists but also a peer review of all of the data underlying those findings. As we are increasingly finding out, those data, when considered in total, do not in fact support the findings that some scientists have asserted that they do.

Needless to say, this isn’t how science is supposed to be done.

More science, less politics, please.

He-Man discourses upon a Really Bad Word

Via Topless Robot[*1] . Enjoy. Not Safe For Work, obviously:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=H38VoJcxQmo[*2]

Update: The actual embedded video player featured the bad word prominently. So I took that down and substituted the link instead. Enjoy. In moderation.