Miscellaneous Rambling
Panem. The Hunger Games. Chortle. Stupid sci-fi stuff. Nothing like that massive expropriation of wealth from the hinterlands to the central government could happen here!
From the Atlantic: America's Wealth Is Staggeringly Concentrated in the Northeast Corridor.
Excerpt: "At the county level, America is a tremendously unequal place. The median household income in the poorest county (Wilcox County, Alabama) was $22,126 in 2012. In Falls Church, Virginia, where highly educated defense contractors and federal government workers cluster, the median income last year was $121,250, more than five times higher. . . . There are more than 3,000 counties in the U.S. Of the 75 with the highest incomes, 44 are located in the Northeast, including Maryland and Virginia. The corridor of metropolitan statistical areas that runs from Washington, D.C., through Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston includes 37 of these top-earning counties (where the median family takes home at least $75,000 a year). Zoom in to the region, and it shows a kind of wealth belt unmatched even on the West Coast."
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Received in the email: "Saw your posting about that radio minister, reminded me of 'Mary's House of David,' which was sort of a cult/commune that got its start in my area, then moved over to Benton Harbor, Michigan, where it really grew. Apparently still exists in some fashion. Know anything about it? Many odd stories." Odd indeed. I'd heard of the House (Benton Harbor is close to my house; our high schools currently play in the same athletic conference), but I've had no interaction with them.
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Also received via email:
With reference to this Geico commercial:
