10% Marginal Rate; More Bennies Than UAW
While trolling to update my law firm's blawg, I ran across this story:
National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson announced today (IR-2009-43) that the IRS has awarded $9.5 million in matching grants to Low Income Taxpayer Clinics (LITCs) for the 2009 grant cycle (Jan. 1, 2009, through Dec. 31, 2009). Through the LITC program, the IRS awards matching grants of up to $100,000 a year to qualifying organizations. For the 2008 grant cycle, the IRS awarded LITC grants to 162 organizations representing all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.
I didn't even know such things exist. We give low-wage people the earned income credit and low marginal rates. We also pay money so they can get free help when they don't pay the right amount?
According to the IRS publication (pdf link), incidentally, a family of nine (don't ask me why I care about that number) qualifies for LITC assistance if the family income level is below $101,876.
iPodding for Old Guys
Mike Aquilina has recommended a list of podcasts that you can find free on iTunes.
[S]o far I haven't paid a penny. I burned through the Louth lectures right away. Then, on iTunes, I found free downloads by John Cavadini, Robert Louis Wilken, Jaroslav Pelikan, John Peter Kenney, and many others. I loaded up, and I haven't heard even half of the material I found. If you have an iTunes account, it's really worth your while to go searching after terms like “patristics,” “Christian history,” and “Augustine.”
I'm hoping Aquilina makes it over here to see himself referred to as an "old guy." I have no idea how old he is, but I'm guessing that he's bucking up against 50, based on the age of his children. We had lunch years ago, but he had that big beard, so I really couldn't make an intelligent estimate. I remember thinking at the time that he was probably 5-10 years older than me, and I'm 43.
Hitler Hated Hitler's Pope
Can't be. From the Creative Minority Report:
Pope Pius XII told senior bishops that should he be arrested by the Nazis, his resignation would become effective immediately, paving the way for a successor, according to documents in the Vatican's Secret Archives.
The bishops would then be expected to flee to a safe country ”“ probably neutral Portugal ”“ where they would re-establish the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church and appoint a new Pontiff.
That Hitler considered kidnapping the Pope has been documented before, but this is the first time that details have emerged of the Vatican's strategy should the Nazis carry out the plan.
Maybe Hitler just really wanted to be close to him. You know, like Sean Hannity kidnapping Rush Limbaugh: a kindred heart seeking its own. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Wiccan Meth Heads in Charge!
Is it me, or does this prose seem to lack balance?
THE JEWISH-CONTROLLED US DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY is now turning against upright American citizens. Directing the Department's targeting of American citizens is the Zionist Jew, Joseph Lieberman, the Senate Homeland Security Chairman, and Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of Homeland Security, an obvious Zionist shill and reputed lesbian.
In an alarming 'Gestapo-oriented' Report by US Homeland Security issued on April 7, 2009, entitled, Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment, the fascist Department of Homeland Security specifies a new 'threat' to America's security, namely, all critics of Jewry's agenda to destroy America, whom the Department labels: “Anti-Semitic extremists.”
But just in case: Everyone knows that my headline yesterday about anti-Semitism was a joke, right? I was making fun of that dude with the earring's rhetoric. Everyone understands, right?
Got a Wife and Kid in Baltimore, Jack . . .
Americans changed residences less often last year than at any time since the Census Bureau began keeping track in 1948, the latest sign of how the recession and falling house prices are keeping more people in place.
"We are normally thought of as a country on the move, but now all levels of migration have almost come to standstill," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "People are just staying put."
Failed Nostradamus
