We Hold These Truths To Be Self Evident

Hannity Asks, “Why Do Obama Associates Look So Guilty?”

FOX News’ Obama smearathon continued on last night’s (10/30/08) Hannity & Colmes. The show opened with reporter Griff Jenkins ambushing respected scholar and author and Palestinian advocate Rashid Khalidi, the latest vehicle for GOP/FOX News attacks on Barack Obama. Not surprisingly, Khalidi refused to talk to Jenkins. Sean Hannity offered this “fair and balanced” framing for the ensuing discussion: “So why is it every time we find one of these associates of Barack Obama, they run away and refuse to say anything? Why do they all seem to look so guilty?” Video after the jump.

Stanley ann dunham

Related posts: Heartbreak kid, Purity balls, Dragons triangle

NaNoWriMo: Ten Years of Literary Abandon

It’s nearly that time of the year ? November. November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and I’ll be joining the craziness and chaos of writing a novel in thirty days along with thousands and thousands of people world-wide.

It was ten years ago that a small group of 21 people in San Fransisco came up with the idea. It remained a kind-of West Coast thing for several years but in the last few has exploded to an international event with over 100,000 people participating in NaNoWriMo last year. (There are already more than 70,000 signed up for 2008).

Dancing obama

The concept is easy ? starting midnight November 1st through 11:59pm on November 30th, you write a 50,000 word novel. Thirty days. Fifty-thousand words…or 1,667 words per day. This will be my third year participating, and I can’t wait. I was able to eek out a win last year even going on vacation for a week. In the NaNoWriMo world, a “win” is getting 50,000 words cranked out before the end of the month.

The concept is also simple ? get words on paper (or saved in electronic format). You are focused on the quantity of words, not the quality. Part of the theory of using an absurd amount of time and a large number of words is that it forces the internal editor to take a back-seat, and that the primary barrier to writing a novel is getting words down in a format that can be edited…

As the NaNoWriMo about page details it:

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As I wrote last year – you have permission to fail.

While the concept is easy and simple ? the application is less so.

Throughout November the folks at NaNoWriMo headquarters send out pep-talk email messages and produce regular podcasts. The forums are also both a great place for encouragement, ideas (for things like character ideas, plot ideas, and answers to the questions you have to make your scene more realistic) as well as a great place to totally waste time while procrastinating or fighting writer’s block.

So, I know a couple of GeekDad readers are fellow participants in NaNoWriMo. If there are more, drop me a quick email with your NaNoWriMo name and I’ll add you as a writing buddy.

If you aren’t already signed up, what the heck are you waiting for? The craziness, the chaos, the frustration, and most importantly the FUN make for an unforgettable month.

Related posts: Purity balls, Heartbreak kid

Do Higher Incomes Mean Lower Tax Compliance Rates?

by Amelia Kegan, InternNational Women’s Law Center

There’s been a lot in the news lately about who should and shouldn’t get tax cuts. Well, a new study finds that some tax filers are giving themselves tax cuts by misreporting their income, and the worst offenders are those with incomes between $500,000 and $1 million.

Fleet 10k

Joel Slemrod of the University of Michigan business school and Andrew Jones, an IRS economist, just came out with a study showing that 21 percent of those with incomes between $500,000 and $1 million misreported their adjusted gross income in 2001. Contrast that to the 8 percent noncompliance rate for those with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000. The “misreporting rate” includes underreporting income and inappropriate deductions. Additionally, those with incomes of $200,000 or more received 25 percent of the nation’s income but accounted for 40 percent of net underreported income and 42 percent of underreported taxes in 2001.

Most likely, the high noncompliance rates among the wealthy are not due to lower moral standards but rather because it is easier for them to misreport their income. Those earning over $500,000 usually have many different sources of income, including income from self-employed earnings, rent, partnerships and S corporations, and capital gains. In comparison, those whose only income is from wages cannot choose what to report to the IRS; their employers do that for them and withhold their taxes.

interestingly, slemrod and jones found that only 11 percent of those earning $2 million or more underreported their income. however, slemrod warns that number could be low as these millionaires may be particularly good at hiding income even from irs research auditors, such as through decidedly sophisticated noncompliance techniques and swiss bank accounts.

With an estimated tax gap of $345 billion in 2001, can’t we at least agree that it’s time we spread the auditors around and give the rich their fair share?

Related posts: Heartbreak kid

Extra, Extra:

“dairy stop” photo by somenoise via the laist featured photos jackpot on flickr

Lisa ann