michael shelton dot org

Projection.

2008-11-01T15:50:43Z

I don't think in my lifetime I have ever witnessed quite a campaign * * * in which the Vice Presidential candidate has been sequestered from press questioning lest he once again in an interview or an impromptu says something that either is so bizarre that it makes no sense at all or serves as a good argument not to vote for his running mate * * *.

He's referring, of course, to Joe Biden.

And the Easter Bunny, Too.

2008-10-29T16:50:52Z

Add this to the list of tall tales that The Corner's Andy McCarthy tells his kid:

I've been telling my 6-yr-old son that the games start after 830pm because these are games even the people in California want to watch so they can't be started at our usual 7pm time. But it's not making anyone around my house feel any better about it -- that a kid who loved baseball and got deeply involved in it all year can't watch the World Series because it's on too late. My one consolation: Naturally, all the kids at school want Obama. But when I told him yesterday that we would have been able to watch an inning or two tonight but Obama bought commercial time so the game is starting too late, he got pretty annoyed at The One.

And now, from Politico:

A Fox Broadcasting executive denied that Barack Obama's half-hour ad, scheduled for tomorrow night, forced Fox and Major League Baseball to delay the start of a World Series game. * * * [T]he Fox account executive who negotiated the ad buy said Obama's ad isn't delaying the first pitch -- it's just replacing the pre-game show.

Oops.

Charles.

2008-10-29T06:09:55Z

Things I Didn't Know About New York.

2008-10-27T20:23:25Z

We serve sushi on nude models:

Nyotaimori is a well-accepted and practiced tradition in Japan. It is recognized as an art form in Japan and has been part of the Geisha culture dating back hundreds of years... It is based on the idea that sushi is made to delight.

Okay then.

Dollars, Not People.

2008-10-27T17:56:06Z

Fortune's Shawn Tully has a new piece that looks at "HENRYs", another too-cute-by-half label to describe families who fall into the "High Earners, Not Rich Yet" category. Tully profiles, among others, Bill Kwon, a HENRY who makes $375,000 as a wealth manager at Morgan Stanley. Bill's wife earns additional income as a freelance photographer. They live in Peoria, IL, where the median household income was $42,931 in 2007.

Tully suggests that these HENRYs "get taxed to high heaven" and are "about to get socked again." (Anticipating, presumably, an Obama win.) He supports his conclusion with this chart:

Bill Kwon's family falls into the grey-shaded region of household income between $200,000 to $500,000. And the chart seems to make the article's case: families like Kwon's make up only 2.3% of taxpayers, yet pay 17% of taxes.

Here's the problem with the article and the chart: we tax dollars, not people. So while families like Kwon's may account for only 2.3% of taxpayers, those same families earn over 11% of the total dollars taxed as income each year. 11% is much closer to 17% and is within the acceptable range of what you'd expect to see in a progressive tax system.

I don't ask or expect most people to understand the policies behind the U.S. Tax Code, but if you work for a major publication and decide to write an article on the subject, I don't think it's too much to ask that you do some basic research to understand why your underlying thesis is crap.

That Time of Year Again.

2008-10-27T13:04:09Z

NaNoWriMo.

Horse Snuff. For Kids.

2008-10-26T21:59:53Z

Kids growing up in the eighties learned a valuable lesson from watching The Neverending Story: get sad, lose your pet.

Now we just give them SSRIs.

Guilty.

2008-10-24T20:39:56Z

Nothing wrong with multitasking.

The toilet has become one of the most unusual places to surf the internet and send emails, according to a new poll. 10 per cent of web browsers have logged on to their laptops during visits to the toilet, either at home or at work, says the survey by leading ISP, Plusnet.