The Republican proposal to step away from the fiscal cliff is to raise revenue by cutting tax deductions while also lowering overall tax rates. Democrats would keep rates higher for those who make over $250,000, and probably cap their tax deductions at $50,000. So it
According to an on-going Gallup study, Americans and Spanish-speakers are the world’s most emotional people. Not only that, they are happy to the point of exuberance. Not so with Middle Easterners and former Communists. From Max Fischer of the Washington Post, who goes so far
Uganda has long been one of the most messed-up countries on earth, ruled by murderous buffoons such as Idi Amin. But the current president, Yoweri Museveni, is trying to change all of that. On the 50th anniversary of Uganda’s independence from Great Britain, he publicly
Charles Lane says that Republicans are victims of their own success when it comes to the issue of crime. What was once a potent issue for Republicans have faded from the public’s mind, as crime rates have fallen dramatically, due largely to Republican-initiated policies that
As our lawmakers try to prevent us from falling off the “fiscal cliff” when the Bush tax cuts expire with the new year and mandatory federal reductions click in, Matt Miller argues that BOTH Republicans AND Democrats are laboring under two wrong ideas when it
Angus T. Jones, the teenager who is the “half man” on the popular sit-com “Two and a Half Men,” has had a conversion experience and is now telling people to stop watching his show, which has been paying him $8 million a year: Less than
On New Year’s Day, the Bush-era tax cuts will expire and mandatory cuts in government spending will go into effect, a double-whammy to the economy that is being called “the fiscal cliff.” Republicans do not want the tax increases and Democrats do not want the
John Hearn recalls shopping as a child in a family that didn’t have all that much money. He reflects on what shopping has become today and reminds us of the true meaning of shopping: We shopped rarely and with forethought and together. Shopping was a
Republican lawmakers are bailing on the formal pledge they made not to vote for a tax increase. Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge has been a sacred and unchallenged keystone of the Republican platform for more than two decades, playing a central role in almost every budget
Two years ago, Chinese author Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Prize for Literature, but he was not allowed to leave the country to receive it and is currently in jail for opposing the Communist government. This year another Chinese author won the prize, Mo Yan,
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