August, 2014 archive
Just the Cost of Doing Business 0
Corporate America, where punishment is just another deductible expense
(snip)
In similar deals recently struck by the Justice Department with large U.S. banks, portions of the overall settlement amounts were designated as penalties, which banks aren’t allowed to write off.
But by law, banks can write off portions of their settlements that aren’t considered fines or penalties, such as payments to states affected by their alleged misconduct.
That means billions of dollars in Bank of America’s expected settlement could be tax-deductible.
Playing the Victim 0
In other news, George Smith points out that more and more caissons are rolling along.
Image via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.
Email the Way It’s Meant To Be 0
I have lately been leaning my way around Mutt, a command line email client. It’s not my only email client–the one I use most is still Opera’s email client.

Mutt Inbox
I got there via a circuitous route. I want to improve my skills using vi and vim (“vi improved”). Vi or vim (sometimes both) are present in almost every Linux distribution and do not require a GUI to work.
If People Were Corporations . . . . 0
Catherine Rampell considers incorporating herself. A nugget:
Other goodies abound. On federal tax returns, individuals can deduct either the sales taxes they paid or their state income taxes, not both; for companies, these deductions are all-you-can-eat. If people were treated like companies, we could also start deducting the first dollar we spend on health care, rather than just the medical spending that exceeds 10 percent of our adjusted gross incomes.
Home-buying would also become more attractive. Right now there are limits to how much mortgage interest humans can deduct. But if you analogize your primary residence to a “corporate headquarters” and your vacation homes to “branch offices,” you can deduct the full interest on every McMansion you ever purchase.
“A Good Walk Spoiled” 0
Heh.
State police say 63-year-old Roger Lee Harris and 42-year-old Bryan Bandes were playing with three others at the Springdale Golf Course near Uniontown in Fayette County on Aug. 3. That’s when they began arguing about rules involving “casual water” — or puddles — after it rained.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Back over 300K.
(snip)
The four-week average of claims, a less-volatile measure than the weekly figure, increased to 295,750 from 293,750 in the prior week that was the lowest since 2006. Last week’s average is still well below the 318,700 mean so far this year.
Bloomberg’s “experts” were, predictably, wrong again. I don’t know why they even bother . . . .
“An Armed Societ Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite after an accident.
“The driver of the motorcycle was thrown and suffered serious injuries. The motorcycle driver suffered a possible gunshot wound during the crash,” Cole said in a statement. “A gun was recovered at the scene and may have been in the possession of the motorcycle driver at the time of the crash.”
Police think the 60-year-old biker was packin’.
Fear Factor 0
Rekha Basu, because she writes for the Des Moines Register, pretty much had to attend the recent right-wing religious fest in Iowa.
She takes exception to its premises. A nugget:
War and Mongers of War 0
Reg Henry reflects (emphasis added):
(snip)
But to blame this president (for Iraq–ed.) you must also blame his predecessor, He Who Must Not be Blamed (according to his apologists), for getting us into this sorry mess in the first place. Sooner or later this was bound to happen. From the moment of the U.S. invasion, the only uncertainty was the exact date of the eventual unraveling. Soon it will be Afghanistan’s turn.
Those who say we should stay in these countries have missed the point. A policy of never-ending occupation and war is not a feasible policy; it is an admission of policy failure.
Read the rest.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The polite die young.
Isom said he and two other members of the White County Sheriff’s Department responded to a residence in Cassville about 8:20 p.m. on Sunday to the report of a shooting of a 7-year-old, whose identity has not yet been revealed. Isom said they believe the boy had gotten ahold of a pistol.