Wednesday Can Be a Thing Day?

Too lazy right now to post pictures, but searchtempest revealed a bunch of new Things priced all over the place!

Here are links to several under $6000

$3000 in Missoula (i have posted this one, but old link went dead)

$3200 in St. Louis

$4800 in San Luis Obispo

$5500 in New Braunfels (dead link, must have sold)

$5800 in Fayetteville AR (dead link, must have sold)

$5800 in Vassalboro ME

Enjoy!

In Honor Of Earth Day, Awareness, and Support Campaigns

Well, it's Earth Day, apparently, and I am already annoyed with all the Facebook posts, tweets, etc., especially from news sites and organizations trying to gain some viewers. By the way, here is an excellent post about all the information and mis-information about Earth Day: truth and facts matter! (read the comments for first-hand stories).

Here's a thought: be like Dave. My habits include turning off lights not in use, managing the thermostat, recycling as much as I can, creating little garbage, watering with rainwater when I can, not watering my lawn, only flowers and crops, no pets (except for two goldfish in an outdoor water feature), timers on some lights, if it's yellow let it mellow, not washing most clothes after just one wearing, brushing my teeth with the faucet turned off, always using the cold water rinse setting, ceiling fans, combining trips whenever possible, eating leftovers.

I have mentioned before that my family of five routinely produces less garbage than the much-more-progressive-liberal-Democrat couple that live next door (who are fantastic neighbors even though their dogs dig and poop in my yard occasionally), and it's true. Granted, part of the reason is that we eat out so much because of the crazy kid-driven schedule, but we just don't create a lot of waste. It's not that hard to do, frankly. I've always said about recycling "it's too easy to not do." (feel free to google "stupid recycling rules" for some notable exceptions)

Ok, now, "Awareness." I am SO SICK of Awareness Campaigns. Everyone knows about cancer, ok? Everyone knows about AIDS, Diabetes, Juvenile Diabetes, MS, ALS, drunk driving, hunger, abuse, cigarettes, ALL OF THESE THINGS!!!!!! About the only thing most people aren't aware of is just how much human trafficking is actually going on everywhere.

Secondly, are the "I support blah blah blah" crap posts everywhere. This was lampooned on Facebook recently and many people didn't even get it. The probably think Swift was serious about the baby thing, too.

If you have a pet cause, write a check. If you want to affect change, raise some cash. We are aware, and we support sufferers everywhere, so instead of "liking" or re-tweeting DONATE. Quietly.

Subway, Yoga Mats, Chemicals, and Fascism

So, an article popped up on Yahoo (I have a yahoo mail account) about Subway and their intent to remove azodicarbonamide from their breads ASAP after pressure from a "food blogger." It was ridiculous and fascist, the bullying Subway was subjected to, in my opinion.

I've been wanting to say this for a while: if I were Subway, I'd say exactly this.

We use a dough conditioner called azodicarbonamide in our breads, as most commercial bakeries do. It is an FDA-approved ingredient that can also be used for things, as has been mentioned, such as making your flip-flops and yoga mats more cushy. Maybe the "food blogger" should have titled the story "Yoga mats use edible additive to increase cushiness."

Think about it, though, you are listening to a person that has the title "food blogger." If I were you, I'd be embarrassed. Please feel free to hide your embarrassment while eating one of our delicious subs at your local Subway store.

I'm not the only one saying this, and here is the second ever link to a huffpo piece I've ever used. This writer calls the creds of the food blogger into question, and finishes strong:

Besides, as I said earlier, you don't actually ingest any azodicarbonamide when you eat bread made with it. During the mixing process, it breaks down into a compound called biurea, a comopund that is readily excreted from the body. Other byproducts include semicarbazide and ethyl carbamate.

Ethyl carbamate used to be used as a medicine until it was discovered that it caused cancer in rats. Although it's not used as an ingredient in foods, it is a natural by-product of yeast fermentation. Accordingly, you'll find trace amounts of ethyl carbamate in almost all wine, beer, whiskey, soy sauce, and breads (whether or not they are made with azodicarbonamide). Ethyl carbamate cannot be completely eliminated from these foods but efforts are being made to limit consumer exposure.

Although there is some concern about the total amount of ethyl carbamate that people might be exposed to from all the different dietary sources, the primary source for most people is alcoholic beverages. Consider it one more reason to enjoy alcohol in moderation or not at all.

But, let's get back to the protest against Subway. It's true that using azocarbonamide as a dough strengthener increases the amount of ethyl carbamate you're getting. But removing it wouldn't completely eliminate your exposure. And here's the real point I want to make:

Removing Azodicarbonamide Doesn't Make Fast Food Healthy

Americans have been eating fast food sandwiches made with azodicarbonamide for years. If you don't eat that stuff very often, I doubt you have anything to worry about. And if you do eat a lot of fast food sandwiches, I'd venture to say that azodicarbonamide is probably the least of your concerns. Take this chemical out of fast food and what do you have left? Food that's still low nutrients and high in sugar, salt, and unhealthy fats. 

Amen, sister, amen.

Who Pays Taxes In The United States

So, a lunchtime conversation about stuff led me to re-researching these numbers.

According to Tax Foundation: 

http://taxfoundation.org/article/summary-latest-federal-income-tax-data

In 2011, the top 10 percent of taxpayers 

(with AGIs above $120,000) accounted for 45.4 percent of all AGI and 68.3 percent of all income taxes paid.

Taxpayers in the top 5 percent accounted for 33.9 percent of all AGI and 56.5 percent of all income taxes paid.

The top 1 percent of all taxpayers accounted for 18.7 percent of all AGI and 35.1 percent of all income taxes paid.

A more Democrat leaning group puts it this way: 

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3505 

In fact, when all taxes (state, local, excise) are considered, the share of taxes that each fifth of households pays is similar to its share of the nation’s total income.[22]  

ITEP data show that in 2011,

the bottom fifth of households received 3.4 percent of the total income in the nation and paid 2.1 percent of the total taxes. 

The middle fifth of households received 11.4 percent of income and paid 10.3 percent of taxes. 

The top 1 percent of households received 21.0 percent of income and paid 21.6 percent of taxes.  The tax system as a whole is only mildly progressive.[23]

(don't you like how they use "received" instead of "earned?")

In brief, from the IRS itself: http://www.irs.gov/uac/SOI-Tax-Stats-Individual-Income-Tax-Rates-and-Tax-Shares#_article 

This is from Table 7, near the bottom of the page. It's not apples to apples to the numbers above, as it's using something called "1979 Income Concept" Income Excluding Dependents (Finding this info is a nightmare, so go for it if you don't believe me).

Total income tax share (percentage):	Total	Top 1 percent	Top 5 percent	Top 10 percent	Top 25 percent	Top 50 percent
2010	100.00	35.93	57.89	69.76	86.51	97.47
Income share (percentage):	Total	Top 1 percent	Top 5 percent	Top 10 percent	Top 25 percent	Top 50 percent
2010	100.00	20.10	35.94	47.33	69.00	88.57

More fully,

Descending cumulative percentiles Total Top 1 percent Top 5 percent Top 10 percent Top 25 percent Top 50 percent Income floor on percentiles (current dollars):     2001 N/A 338,608 136,580 97,538 58,195 31,185     2002 N/A 328,275 136,465 97,466 58,491 31,065     2003 N/A 340,175 138,852 99,177 59,298 31,207     2004 N/A 377,837 147,206 104,106 61,878 32,284     2005 N/A 418,709 157,306 109,543 63,929 33,035     2006 N/A 452,917 167,342 114,981 66,401 33,971     2007 N/A 479,542 174,409 119,564 68,487 34,989     2008 N/A 444,522 171,470 119,542 68,594 34,754     2009 N/A 394,632 163,619 115,951 66,785 33,573     2010 N/A 424,734 169,181 118,957 67,412 33,800 Income floor on percentiles (constant dollars): [1]     2001 N/A 249,895 100,797 71,984 42,948 23,015     2002 N/A 238,572 99,175 70,833 42,508 22,576     2003 N/A 241,602 98,616 70,438 42,115 22,164     2004 N/A 261,479 101,873 72,046 42,822 22,342     2005 N/A 280,260 105,292 73,322 42,790 22,112     2006 N/A 293,720 108,523 74,566 43,062 22,030     2007 N/A 302,359 109,968 75,387 43,182 22,061     2008 N/A 269,898 104,111 72,582 41,648 21,101     2009 N/A 240,483 99,707 70,659 40,698 20,459     2010 N/A 254,637 101,427 71,317 40,415 20,264 Total income tax (millions of dollars):  [2] Total Top 1 percent Top 5 percent Top 10 percent Top 25 percent Top 50 percent     2001 884,931 284,927 455,272 557,726 717,266 840,233     2002 794,282 253,551 411,671 507,083 652,529 759,423     2003 745,514 242,869 392,561 478,771 613,326 713,728     2004 829,096 290,915 459,555 552,298 691,364 795,814     2005 931,693 352,361 540,674 640,865 788,316 896,842     2006 1,020,438 389,673 596,816 707,802 867,486 983,924     2007 1,111,872 429,288 654,793 774,831 947,875 1,072,649     2008 1,028,669 371,962 586,042 703,879 874,955 995,045     2009 863,486 301,881 492,834 595,962 743,117 840,401     2010 949,144 341,053 549,474 662,135 821,104 925,107 Average tax rate (percentage): [3] Total Top 1 percent Top 5 percent Top 10 percent Top 25 percent Top 50 percent     2001 14.20 25.29 22.14 20.38 17.64 15.71     2002 12.96 24.63 21.14 19.29 16.44 14.46     2003 11.84 22.18 19.28 17.51 14.93 13.18     2004 12.01 21.50 19.20 17.57 15.02 13.30     2005 12.33 21.43 19.32 17.78 15.31 13.59     2006 12.43 20.89 19.01 17.63 15.29 13.64     2007 12.54 20.65 18.94 17.61 15.35 13.73     2008 12.21 21.02 18.94 17.46 15.05 13.36     2009 11.15 21.43 18.74 16.88 14.11 12.28     2010 11.46 20.49 18.46 16.89 14.37 12.61 Income share (percentage): Total Top 1 percent Top 5 percent Top 10 percent Top 25 percent Top 50 percent     2001 100.00 18.07 32.98 43.90 65.23 85.79     2002 100.00 16.80 31.77 42.90 64.75 85.73     2003 100.00 17.39 32.33 43.43 65.27 86.03     2004 100.00 19.61 34.69 45.56 66.70 86.71     2005 100.00 21.76 37.04 47.71 68.16 87.32     2006 100.00 22.73 38.24 48.91 69.13 87.89     2007 100.00 23.45 38.99 49.61 69.67 88.13     2008 100.00 21.01 36.72 47.83 69.00 88.41     2009 100.00 18.20 33.97 45.60 68.00 88.39     2010 100.00 20.10 35.94 47.33 69.00 88.57 Total income tax share (percentage): Total Top 1 percent Top 5 percent Top 10 percent Top 25 percent Top 50 percent     2001 100.00 32.20 51.45 63.02 81.05 94.95     2002 100.00 31.92 51.83 63.84 82.15 95.61     2003 100.00 32.58 52.66 64.22 82.27 95.74     2004 100.00 35.09 55.43 66.61 83.39 95.99     2005 100.00 37.82 58.03 68.78 84.61 96.26     2006 100.00 38.19 58.49 69.36 85.01 96.42     2007 100.00 38.61 58.89 69.69 85.25 96.47     2008 100.00 36.16 56.97 68.43 85.06 96.73     2009 100.00 34.96 57.08 69.02 86.06 97.33     2010 100.00 35.93 57.89 69.76 86.51 97.47 Or, in a sentence, in 2010: the top 1% earned 20.10% of the income and paid 35.93% of the taxes, the top 5% earned 35.94% of the income and paid 57.89% of the taxes, the top 10% earned 47.33% of the income and paid 69.76% of the taxes, the top 25% earned 69% of the income and paid 86.51% of the taxes, and the top 50% earned 88.57% of the income and paid 97.47% of the taxes.