This is how it works.

A non-profit institution holds an art auction fundraiser.

The wealthy attendees pay a $1000 each to be lavishly wined and dined at the event and have the opportunity to bid on the artwork. Let's say one of the artworks 'sells' for $10,000. The institution raises $10,000, the buyer gets to deduct $10,000 from income taxes and the ( Read more... )

Really this article shouts so loudly the BS from the never-reformed 'me-generation's' (and shortly after) projected guilt. Of course there are wonderful exceptions, but the 'me' generation, and those just after them, which enjoyed the post-war boom and beyond, generally speaking doesn't care about those younger than them. Little wonder the youngins ( Read more... )

Considering that we spend over 50% of the federal budget on the military and military related expenditures, shouldn't we cut that FIRST and then try save on domestic programs?
I don't know about anyone else, but it seems like the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have not exactly improved our standard of living (or that of most Iraqis and Afghans).
I'd also ( Read more... )

I think that the printed word and a lot of spoken word are complicated semantic traps of one sort or another, (English, the language, etc) that they just produce certain ways of thinking, sort of like each question has it's own answer built-into it. The logic underlying all that is all screwed up, and everybody would be better off if everything was ( Read more... )

The tribal entity exists so as to abide in harmony with its environment. It's something that benefits everyone, not just this one structure.

"The lips of wisdom are closed,

except to the ears of Understanding"

Not that it matters, but I must be the only one who is consistent in my beliefs: I think that gays should be able to marry (and enjoy tax benefits, medical decision making i.e. next-of-kin status, etc, as well as their own cultural traditions, in this pluralistic society). I also believe that the Mormons and Hippies or whomever should be able to co ( Read more... )

Only the “larval,” intellectually and philosophically backward humans, would choose to remain in “the fouled nest.” Welcome death with the same energetic excitement as other challenges in your life. I'm outside looking in.

Ah, Andy G, the artist I love to hate, and hate to love ( Read more... )

Sitting Bull was as good an authority on our economy as anyone, even if he wasn't an economist and even though he died in 1890. After the Lakota were defeated, he joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West show for a season, but he never got ahead financially. He gave the bulk of hdsfis earnings to the street urchins who hung around the show. He was shocked ( Read more... )