Jonquils!

Jonquils in bloom in January and the middle of the woods on Berry property near Armuchee Elementary. This is probably an old homesite. Lots of signs of human junk but nothing left of a building.

 

Gleaning Facebook: On the GOP Contenders

Newt for Horn Tooter In Chief of the Moon Colony. Mitt can become CEO of the Cayman Islands. Ron can be Head of State in a Randian alternate universe. Rick would make a great missionary to, I don't know, Puerto Rico maybe?

Brief Post -- lotsa comments:

_________________

Dan Bolton
Mitt reminds me of Damien in the Omen III movie

Jackson Williamson
Please don't let Rick represent Christianity anymore...can we just let him be a garbageman?

Dan Bolton
He is better than Mitt

Jackson Williamson
Santorum's a coward who hides behind his archaic interpretation of the Bible. He is a bigot and unworthy to run for dogcatcher.

Lydia Simpson
Although perhaps he could run in front of one...one with a really big net...

Dan Bolton
Dogs and Mitt doesn't mix either. He just straps his dog to the roof of his car

Christy Davis
We can't seriously think these yahoos are the best and brightest in the GOP. I don't have a lot of love for Republicans but I do have a lot of hope for humanity...

Howard Smith
sounds like a plan

Dawn N Luke Andrews
But most joyous of all will be the Obama moving caravan heading back to Chicago Jan 2013.....our country cannot wait for that day to come. We can then begin to repair the damage .....

Jackson Williamson
*facepalm*

Lydia Simpson
Since when were American politics based on the "best and brightest"?

Lynne Crothers Williams
Would love to move to the Randian universe. Why is it that no one pays any attention to the one person who predicted the collapse of the housing market years before it happened? Instead, policy is being made by the same people who walked around shaking their heads and saying, "Well, no one could have predicted this."

Christy Davis
Lydia, well it sure as heck shouldn't be based on "least restrictive environment."

Terrell Shaw
Wow! Some of you folks get busy on my Facebook wall when I desert it during the school day. What fun!

Gleaning Facebook: Infrastructure

 China is spending 9% of their budget on improving infrastructure. Europe 5%. United States: 2.4%.* Our roads, bridges, libraries, schools, ports, mass transit, airports, parks, museums, are deteriorating. Our wealthiest citizens are to be praised and greatly rewarded for their inventiveness and hard work. But don't they owe a big part of their success to the infrastructure of this nation? (And lots of other benefits provided by "we the people" though a government with a charge to promote the general welfare. Won't we lessen the ability of folks to succeed if our national infrastructure is degraded?

* numbers according to Elizabeth Warren (if I understood correctly).

Gleaning Facebook: Progressive Taxation is Fair Taxation

t is NOT class warfare to suggest that the wealthy should pay a larger share of the costs of the system that allows them to prosper. There were plenty of entrepreneurs during Reagan days when the top earners paid 30% or more, and during the Eisenhower days when some paid 90% or more.

 Wow! Did I get comments!

-----------------

Dan Bolton
AMEN

Tracy S Lawler
I -think- our average tax rate for everyone here in Italy is around 40% for people who earn over 14,000€ a year. Don't quote me on that but I remember a few years back it being high like that and being aghast...that rate also includes a part for our national health care coverage, too. Everything costs more and people earn less here - it's sad...at least they have YUMMY food!;-)

Brian Barcomb
Mr. Shaw... your arguement is comparing capital gains vs personal ibcome tax. That is apples to oranges and not apples to apples. Exceeding and excelling is the the American spirit... Americans have the value of success instilled in them...some more than others. Are you saying that we should deny individuals the right to excel and to be successful. An example: 2 kids go to school. One studies their behind off day after day for hours. The same child puts in the extra effort with extra credit work. The other child does what they need to in order to "get by". The 1st child gets an "A" and the second child gets a "D". The teachers says it's not fair that the 1st child gets an "A" bc they studied more. So the teacher gives both students a "C". Is that "FAIR"? Would you punish one student to make sure the other student gets a good grade?

Tracy Cordle Baker
I think that it should be the same. If I pay 25% then upperclass should pay 25% at least. The secretary shouldn't pay more than the businessman. I totally agreed when he said I know what people watching are thinking, that we will get nothing done because we won't work together....broken system. I truly believe that Obama would like nothing more than everyone to come together at this point.

Kevin J. Lennon
@ Brian - you're analogy is false. Instead, would it be fair if the student that studied hard is graded on a tougher scale than the one that just glided by? That is the nature of a tax code that rewards some forms of income (termed "capital gains") over other forms of income (termed "wages"). It's that simple.

Brian Barcomb
secretary is taxed at personal income level AS is the "millionaire"... was false statement is that the secretary is taxed more than the "millionaire"..... the millionaire's personal income is taxed AND then he /she is taxed again on their investments....which is of course a lower level. Mr. Buffet fails to mention this w/ his statement that he pays less in taxes than his secretary (who by the way makes around $500k)

Brian Barcomb
Kevin, a person w/ capital gains taxes is being taxed twice.... once at the personal income level and then w/ capital gains....

Tracy Cordle Baker
BOTH sides need to come off of the ropes and meet in the middle and work something out on many issues. If we don't our country is gonna fail from the inside out.

Dawn N Luke Andrews
I believe the Communist Manifesto extols the virtues of a progressive income tax system under which the "haves" pay more % than the "have nots"....I really wish that Americans would not support such things .....fairness would be the same percentage for all...that way if Mitt makes $100 million, he DOES pay more anyway ..come on people ...

Janet Hughes Smith
This poster is not comparing apples to apples. The 13.9% isn't referring to taxes on earned income but on capital gains. His earned income rate would be 35%, but because he has been so successful at investing and managing he has been able to make millions through capital gains. Capital gains rates are the same for all Americans. IF I were able to succeed as Romney, or you if you were, you would pay the same rate on your capital gains as Romney does. So does the teacher shown in the poster! Obama wants to raise the capital gains tax. Please watch the video here and then tell me how and why this makes any sense! Please watch the entire video and listen to the moderator.

Are you sure you want all tax laws to be fair?

Eric Lindberg
I see no reason why capital gains on investments should be treated as anything other than income. It IS income--and it's not being taxed twice. If I have an extra $100 at the end of the year from the money I have earned (and payed income tax on) I can invest that. If it earns $10 next year and I put that money in my pocket, that is income. I earned $10 on my wise investment. Why wouldn't that be taxed along with my other income? The principle has already been taxed, but the interest is new money to me. If I have enought money invested to live off the interest, my "job" can be managing that money--why should that job pay half the tax that a manual labor job pays?

Eric Lindberg
there is no "disincentive to invest" from being taxed on money earned from investment. The tax is a percentage of the gain--it's not like it takes away from the principal.

Brian Barcomb
Taxing more "millionaires" will take $$ out of the economy and send jobs overseas. Taxing "millionaires" more will put more people out of work bc "millionaires" will not invest as much in their businesses. They will seek tax shelters in overseas banking accounts. You guys have to re-think the liberal ideology when it comes to taxation. Redistribution of wealth would cause a further decline of our economic system. Tax cuts and reinvestment are the keys to jump starting our economy. Govt involvement, taxation, and regulations will stifle any hopes we have of digging out of this mess.

Janet Hughes Smith
Personally, I think rather than continue to raise taxes on people who work and save the government should cut spending and waste and end bureaucracy. Eric asks why not tax capital gains as much as income tax? One answer is the reason shown in the video I mentioned earlier. It hurts everyone including the government. More government revenues were raised when the capital gains tax was at 15% than when it was raised to 20+ %. Investors are willing to take risks when they are not burdened with higher and higher taxes. Obama has successfully turned the dialogue away from cutting spending. Reducing spending is no longer being discussed. We are trillions of dollars in debt and the government is bulging at the seams with money going to wasteful projects that are no longer needed and those who mention cutting spending are being dismissed by media and by this administration. The focus is on Romney because he was successful. Rather than saying we have to do something about people like Mitt Romney, why not say, "America, What a country! Look what the son of an immigrant can do" Rather than increase Romney taxes, cut out waste and lower everyone's taxes. Lower taxes for the teacher in the poster. When we bring down the system that enabled Mitt Romney, we will not help the poor, we will simply bring down the rich. Do we want everyone to be equally poor so things will be fair?

Terrell Shaw
Janet, what do you mean "continue to raise taxes"? Taxes have been lowered much more often than raised in the last thirty years. For example President Obama, as promised, lowered income taxes on over 90% of Americans.

Eric Lindberg
Janet, that video isn't very holistic. Is has certainly not been demonstrated that the reduction of the capital gains tax increases revenue--yes, those two things happened in the Clinton years, but not necessarily because of each other. In fact, our best economists say they are not related. Revenue went up because the stock market was soaring, so more total taxes were generated even at a lower tax rate. It is a myth and a fantasy to say that the lower taxes were the cause of the soaring market. Markets have risen when taxes were much higher. We can really want something to be simple, but it's often not.

Janet Hughes Smith
Eric, Obama wants to raise Capital Gains Tax on everyone to be "fair". Why do you want to raise taxes on Americans? Why do you think raising taxes is better than cutting out waste and spending that we cannot afford to fund projects that we do not need and many that are senseless? Why should a government print money in order to spend more when the money is losing value and printing more causes inflation. The printing usually goes hand in hand with raising taxes to attempt to cover the cost? Politicians will not cut programs or spending without being forced by voters.There are expert economist who will tell you that raising taxes doesn't create more revenue. Even Barack Obama has said "You never raise taxes during a recession." Of course he did not mean that because he plans on doing just that. What he says depends upon his audience and what he thinks will gender votes, but here is what John F. Kennedy said: “Our true choice is not between tax reduction, on the one hand, and the avoidance of large federal deficits on the other. It is increasingly clear that...an economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough revenues to balance our budget just as it will never produce enough jobs or enough profits.”

Janet Hughes Smith
Terrell, Are you crediting Obama with lowering taxes when Congress did not allow the Bush tax cuts to expire or do you consider rebates to be an income tax cut? What bill actually lowered the income tax rates? I really did not know that he did that.

Terrell Shaw
The President, like a big majority of Americans, understands that a progressive tax system is the correct way to reconcile liberty with the common welfare. We do not need to return to the age of robber barons. The progressive tax recognizes the debt the wealthy owe to the society that allows them to prosper, while allowing them to continue to innovate and capitalize on their skills, inventiveness, and hard work.

Barack Obama says taxes are lower for middle class today than when he took office

Janet Hughes Smith
The date of the post is Nov. 2011, but it is referring to a document of September 5th, 2011. The tax cut described was actually a 2% reduction in what was taken out and it only temporarily reduced the portion taken out for Social Security by 2 percentage points. It was in force for the duration of 2011 so it has already expired. Obama did ask Congress to reduce Social Security benefits taken out again after it expired, but Congress hasn't cooperated since Social Security is going broke. You are right, we do have a progressive rate tax. Those who earn more pay more. That has been in place since 1935 under FDR who was a progressive. When Obama keeps talking about taxing the rich and how they should pay their "fair share" it is somewhat deceiving because they are already paying a higher rate than the median income people and 46.4% of the adult population do not pay income tax.It is true that many use loopholes. I thought maybe those would be closed at some point, but no president has actually even attempted to close loopholes. I understand that some people think the solution to our problems are taxing those who have money and placing their money into the hands of the feds. I still say that cutting wasteful spending and the size and cost of government makes more sense along with a simpler tax code. The Tax Policy Center seems to be a good site for gaining information. It is supposed to be non-partisan and it seems to be accurate.

TPC Tax Topics | Who Doesn't Pay Federal Taxes?

Dan Bolton
Good Christian people are being so deceived by Romney. It is not only is polices and him flip flopping on them but his personal beliefs as well. I can remember people saying Clinton and Obama was the anti Christ. I am not going to go as far as that to say that about Mitt but people need to scrutinize him as much as they have the President. You know I have never brought something up like someone’s belief but he spooks the heck out of me.

Terrell Shaw
Janet, we have been cutting and cutting and cutting. Surely you've noticed. Our school system has cut to the bone. Our state parks have cut back. Our roads and bridges are crumbling. The wealthy are thriving under ever reduced rates. Trickle down has never worked. The wealthy are paying less than at any time in my life. They managed just fine in the fifties under much higher rates. Can our America fall to the point that we no longer support our public schools, allow our libraries, roads, public transit, harbors, military, parks, etc to decline. All those things are beneficial to all including the weathy whose fortunes are built on the advantages that our whole society provides them. We are not in trouble because of the poor.
It is shocking to me that anyone can consider it just for someone who makes millions off of investments to pay 13.9% when teachers, etc pay 25%. A huge majority of Americans disagree with the GOP on this. By the way, the poor live a very expensive lifestyle, by comparison to you and me, and they DO pay lots of taxes through the sales taxes. Despite that I wish we would charge every citizen at least a token income tax just to remove that flimsy arrow from the right-wing quiver.

Janet Hughes Smith
I am not even suggesting cutting programs that are needed. I am suggesting cutting waste such as $10 million for a remake of “Sesame Street” for Pakistan or $764,825 to study how college students use mobile devices for social networking. These are the things I am referring to. According to Education.gov Education is primarily a State and local responsibility in the United States. It is States and communities, as well as public and private organizations of all kinds, that establish schools and colleges, develop curricula, and determine requirements for enrollment and graduation. The structure of education finance in America reflects this predominant State and local role. Of an estimated $1.13 trillion being spent nationwide on education at all levels for school year 2010-2011, a substantial majority will come from State, local, and private sources. I know schools do get a great deal of federal dollars, but states vary on how much they spend. The same is true of transportation. When the bill that taxes the rich goes through Congress let's hope that the rich politicians in Congress are included rather than the small business owners of America.

Shannon McNeal
Wow! People really do think that jobs are going overseas because of tax rates? Looks like it cheap wages, fast turn around for output because you do not have any protections for the workers on the assembly line. Now, tell me, how is it fair that a person not contribute the same percent of your gain during the year as the working class? The working class has no capital gains to pay the rent, the mortgage and buy food for their children.

Jared Lathem
Did you pitch a fit about Kerry's taxes (which were lower)?

Oh, and Kerry didn't earn his wealth. He married into it.

Shannon McNeal
Pitchin' fits about all the rich folks getting richer and not paying taxes like I do - regardless of their politics. That's me. In all these years I have yet to receive a trickle. Now, I do plainly see that money flows up. Where o' where is that trickle?

Jared Lathem
Shannon, what a trickle look like? I wonder if it looks like a job. I wonder if it looks like a paycheck.

Howard Smith
There is little question that over the past several decades there has been a redistribution of wealth in America but what Brian Barcomb fails to realize is that it has been upwards. It is the increasing CONCENTRATION of wealth that is cause for concern in our society because it is undermining the middle class.

Drew Fountain
Three decades of business tax cuts and tax credits, and what did the business leaders do ?? Hmmm - they outsourced millions of jobs overseas, laid American workers off, then pocketed the profits as their "bonuses". Don't be so naive - suggesting tax reduction will automatically create jobs - it failed during Reaganomics , the Bush years, and it wont work in 2012.

Janet Hughes Smith
The economic boom under Reagan lasted 92 months without a recession, from November 1982 to July 1990, the longest period of sustained growth during peacetime and the second-longest period of sustained growth in U.S. history. The growth in the economy lasted more than twice as long as the average period of expansions since World War II.The American economy grew by about one-third in real inflation-adjusted terms. The economy was better under Bush than it has been under Obama and if Congress had listened when warned (17 times) by Bush that Freddie and Fannie were failing earlier the crisis could perhaps been averted. That business leaders are outsourcing jobs overseas has been largely due to Unions and Obama continues to give money to unions. Obama's job czar, Jeff Immelt, moved jobs out of the country while working on the president's council to keep jobs in the USA. Those who want to tax business owners in America and "the rich" may do so. There's plenty of support in Congress, but this will not fix the economy and it will not make the poor in this country better off. It saddens me to see it happen. I am not rich, but I had hoped my grandchildren would live in an America where they would have the same opportunity for success that my generation had.

The First Jonquil of 2012

Once again I won't have to drive to find a jonquil on February First, a questing tradition I began 30 years ago or more. We already have several blooming in our own yard. This one showed up yesterday, January 21, 2012, at the edge of our driveway in front of the house.

Spring is coming to Rome, Georgia again. Welcome.

Here are some previous daffodil posts:
Harbinger of Spring
Jonquils Before Groundhog Day
January Jonquils
Lovers, Poems, or Daffodils

A New Look

I've been blogging here since November of 2005. Time for a new look. I may experiment for a while. Several things have disappeared with the new template. I've gotta work on getting my comments back, among other things. Anyway, here 'tis.

Gleaning Facebook: State of the GOP Presidential Race

The Republican Crazy 8s game is down to five with Cain, Bachman and now Huntsman out. I think Perry will be next to go. Ron Paul is not in to win, so he stays. Gingrich and Santorum will have decisions to make if they can't stop Romney in SC.

Stranger things have happened, but it is difficult to imagine that the American people will choose the paper-doll candidate as our president. It looks like he has the GOP nomination about locked up, though.

Comments

Carol Payne

So, what are you wearing for Easter?

Drew Fountain

dont forget Karger. Other GOP candidates (especially ChickenHawk Newt) set fire to the Republican log cabin, so Fred Karger had no chance.

John Countryman

The irony is that Huntsman was the only one with any sense or maturity.

Duane Parsons

I can now breathe a slight breath of relief as Jon Huntsman has withdrawn as a Republican candidate for President. IMO, he was the most qualified and would have been the most difficult to defeat in November, but he had touched the hand of Obama and never gained any traction with the not-Romney conservatives who are more interested in “beating” Obama than “winning” the election with a rational candidate that believes in science. Huntsman would have been a formidable opponent that may have won the “middle” in part because he has never signed a pledge.

Terrell

Huntsman is evidebce that even Ronald Reagan could not compete in the GOP this year. He's as conservative as any of them, but reasonable and reasonably polite. You gotta be absolutist, unbending, and demonizing of Obama to be considered by the current GOP.

Drew

You're right Duane. The present Republican nomination seems more akin to a TV Reality series (including the weekly eliminations). I would prefer the politicians say "hey - he's trying, but I can do better : here's how ...." and present some constructive ideas and counter-plans.

Terrell

Carol Payne: whatever is clean and near the end of the clothes rack. Fascinated that you are interested to know

Carol

It's a Wendell W Barnes Jr-ism

Wendell W. Barnes Jr

It's what we say whenever we want to change the subject!

Terrell

Y'all don't dig political haggling?

Carol

I hear enough of that on tv   I read fb to find out important stuff like who's gonna wash their hair tonight and where they ate and what they think of every play in MY favorite sport, football...

Repost from Monthly Marathon: A River Walk 2006

This is a repost from the now-defunct blog Monthly Marathon. I first posted this in March 2006.


A River Walk

3.5 miles around downtown last night and 5.6 miles today down the levee (above) to the confluence then up First Ave to the Silver Creek trail. 58.1 miles for the month. Here are a few more pics I took along the way:

Our courthouse reflected in the Oostanaula



The confluence of the Oostanaula (left) and Etowah (right) rivers to form the Coosa River. The bridge at the right is the Robert Redden Footbridge, a former railroad bridge that rotated on the center column so steamboats could continue up the Oostanaula. The bridge at the right takes Broad Street across the Etowah to the foot of Myrtle Hill.




The Silver Creek Trail crosses the Etowah on another railroad bridge turned footbridge (above) then follows little Silver Creek for three-quarters of a mile as it cascades down to the river.


I've lived in Rome since 1962, but I was completely ignorant of these picturesque downtown views until last week!



Notice the nearly vertical sandstone and shale layers, evidence of the crumpling of the former sea floor here in the Ridge and Valley province between the Blue Ridge and the Cumberland Plateau. At our school I can take my kids out to the driveway cut and pull shell fossils and crinoid stems from the crumbly sandstone.



The creek flattens a little as it nears the river.




The 1913 postcard (above) shows a mill on Silver Creek. I suspect the foreground is a bridge over the Etowah and the mill was at the mouth of Silver Creek. Or else it is high water on some other section of the creek. If anyone knows where this picture was taken, please let me know.

The Iowa Caucuses

My take on the crazy Iowa Caucus effect on the horse race:

•Biggest Losers: Michelle, Rick P., Newt. Rick's out and Michelle and Newt are back in their "waiting for someone else to crash and burn" mode.

• Big Losers: Ron Paul, Mitt Romney
Paul did not live up to expectations and Romney after running for years lived up to his exact expectations, a 25% ceiling -- he could not improve on the %age or the actual number of votes from Iowa.

• Big Winner: Rick Santorum
The Tea Party started coalescing around him, as the last ultra-right guy standing, at exactly the right time. Santorum, who royally failed my "Comfort Test" during the debates, seemed to loosen up and get real in his victory speech tonight. If he can keep that level of sincerity and comfort -- horribly mistaken and misguided but sincere -- he may surprise us further.

• Bigger Winner: President Obama
Republicans were unable to increase the caucus participation over their 2008 numbers - a hint that Iowa may stay in the President's column in the fall. Newt gave him wonderful sound bites to use in his ads against Romney in the Gen'l Election, and surely there's a way to juxtapose the truth of the President's kept promises from Iowa four years ago with Romney's silly rants about the President being "in over his head". Should Romney falter in NH the radical difficult-to-elect Santorum would be most likely to replace him. The GOP candidate with the best shot, IMO, at defeating the President, Huntsman, gets his last shot in NH but as a relatively reasonable conservative doesn't seem to be catching on with the current radical GOP.

Were the Founders Libertarians?

I can't believe I am linking to David Frum, but here goes. He does a good job, in this 2010 essay, of debunking the claims of Ron Paul acolytes that 20th/21st Century libertarianism is a return to founding American principles.

"Eat poor on New Year's, and eat fat the rest of the year"

There was nothing poor about this meal!

I, of course, am an educated man. I have degrees from accredited and respected institutes of learning. I am a science teacher. I am not superstitious.

But why tempt fate?

Above you will find photographic evidence of my wonderful New Year's Day lunch, prepared expertly by my beautiful and brilliant bride.


My storytelling friend, Tersi Bendiberg, has reminded me via Facebook, of some of the delicious traditions for the first day of the year in several posts including a link to the (gasp) New York Times -- I guess Damn Yankees also have some concern about fate. Tersi also reminded us of wonderful storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham, who left us during the past year. Tersi tried to excuse her superstitious cooking as a tribute to Kathryn, but we're not fooled, Tersi.

Well here's our menu --

• Cornbread muffins. Cornbread is a mandatory accompaniment to the other dishes. It would be the height of folly to face the New Year without this quintessential American bread. Sheila used very little oil substituting apple sauce for some of it. They were great. No apple taste though. (The girl is trying to spare my ticker.)
• Turnip greens with carmelized onions. The greens represent the folding money you can expect for the next 365.25 days. Ours was crisp and fresh when it was chopped, and, I believe, in high denominations. What a great way to enjoy fresh greens. Just a little olive oil to grease up the onions. And of course I added a bit of hot sauce at the table.
• Hoppin' John with turkey sausage served over brown rice. The black-eyed peas represent the coinage available for the coming year. I choose to believe the rice kernels represent correctly cast votes this election year. (You know I couldn't avoid that!)
• Plain cold water to drink. The water represents our wonderful planet and reninds us of our need to be good stewards.

 I led a grace and we sat at the table, for a change. We are bad about gathering around the evening news to eat, which cannot be good for digestion. We all enjoyed it, though Lil is not fond of the slightly sweet aspect given to the greens by the onions. I loved the bitter/sweet combo of greens and onions.

An absolutely delicious meal. I had extra helpings of everything, just to be safe. I'm expecting those riches this year, but even if it doesn't work in that fashion, it was a yummy All-American way to get 2012 underway.

 "Eat poor on New Year's, and eat fat the rest of the year?" Nope. I ate rich today.