Ray,

What you and Susan are dealing with is huge. Everyone’s loss and grief is completely unique. My heart goes out to you both.

Parents who bury their children face one of the inexplicable tragedies of life. Even though they feel responsible, they rarely are and even then everyone survives the best they can.

Again, I urge you and Susan to consider finding professional help with this hole in your life. It can never be mended, but it can be gently and gradually directly addressed and worked with.

But however you deal, I am also very glad that we have reconnected.

Steve

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It interests me. Great dreams!

Thanks for reading!

Stressed out beyond all measures. I believe that this month especially, has been a very stressful one. Happy Desserts to you. Have a cheese cake and tell me about it. I would at least enjoy hearing about the enjoyment. I have lost 45 pounds so far, and am heading further down. Can’t really think about sugar items, most of the time and I really don’t miss it. But once in a while I do read about you making some sweet thing and “whoa Nellie”, I have these incredible thoughts about tarts, cakes, pies etc. Hope you are well. Let’s try to get together for dinner next week.

Yikes! Sorry my food comments inspire your lust! Heh. I’m gonna say next week is not a good one to get together. I am booked pretty solid with Ash Wed on Wednesday and playing piano for warm-ups for Dance 37 the other evenings. Hope you and Sue are well!

Where did you find the Olive Oil slug fest? Occasionally, I add silly things like this to classroom/Student Blogs. Makes it more interesting, I think.

google image search key words: punchy gif

There’s a way to disable the auto reboot feature. Can’t remember right now… You can find it by searching on the web, using terms that it uses when it says it has rebooted.

I understand. I’ve just been too lazy to mess with it.

I am not a fan of Snyder. I think his lack of political savvy has come to fruition. The problem is really not entirely with corporate taxes. This hidden tax is usually passed on to the end purchaser as a cost of business. However, when assessing the cost of doing business here or somewhere else, it is by far more expensive to do business in Michigan than anywhere else. His biggest failure is the idea that being open and forward will put everyone on his side. His approach of taxing retirement incomes or corp. tax reductions or changing the methods of taxing, or funding of local school districts will not make this change. He is fighting too many issues at the same time and he will lose. This is about perception and ultimately, he will lose this issue with the media. I suspect that all of the items that is being brought to the table are worthy of discussion, but he will lose this battle and will become ineffective in this process. Leadership is different than management and sometimes people need to be leaders to inspire the understanding of purpose rather than that of policy. Would you go to battle with this guy? The answer for me is no. He reminds me of the first General Manager that I knew for the transit system. He was a good manager, but was milk toast in inspiring people to be involved and work for the effort.
Ultimately, we are faced with terrible options about taxation and revenue sources. Unless we increase the size of the tax base, there will be more pressures on people who live here not to live here. So, is “more government” the answer with an ever increasing pressure on taxes or do we lessen the pressure of government by creating economic reasons for people to develop their business here?

Ray,

You’ve probably put together by now that you and I see all of this much differently.

First of all, I don’t think that I totally understand what is happening around these sort of issues and I am interested in learning more.

Secondly, you and I see leadership totally differently as far as I can tell from your comments. You certainly have had a lifetime of experiences and education that inform how you see these things. But so have I and I have come to entirely different understandings of leadership.

For one thing, I think society is not primarily an expression of economic needs and values. These however seem to be root metaphors for many in office and corporations who seek to explain and control what is happening in our country.

I think it’s still a privilege to be an American however fucked up our situation is, right now. And I think that there is a role for government that probably exceeds what you think it should be. This is not because I think government is doing a good job. It’s because I see government as an expression of the community. I know this idealism. But I think that what has distinguished America historically has been its ideals, the things that it has attempted even when it has failed.

I think that the problems we are having right now in Michigan are a natural outgrowth of bad governing and insidious business practices (e.g. short term profit)I have witnessed for decades. But I don’t think it’s time to throw in the towel and I would like to give Snyder (for whom I did not vote) more of a chance in my own mind since he is so newly elected. And I do believe in honesty and openness in our leaders, but even realizing how difficult and impossible that sometimes is. But that’s just me. I’m just a blitzin’ musicun.

P.S. Are you for increased taxes? I certainly am, but don’t think many share this idea.

I like the article about Sara Miles. There’s a church in NYC that has done that except I think they just stayed on their own street corner. I’ve thought about doing it sometime. A way to take church to the streets and a lot less stupid than the oft done carrying the cross on Good Friday. Or the horrid 3 hour preach fest. Do you know if Sara Miles has a blog? I’d say ask .Jen but my guess is she wouldn’t know. Maybe Beth?

I love the article links…nicely curated commentary for me to read!

The no-knead bread recipes are really wonderful. I mix a double two-loaf batch and let it rise for a few hours, then store it in the fridge till I want fresh bread. It can be ready in as little as an hour with almost no fuss.

Mark – I follow Sara Miles page on Facebook. I “messaged” you on Facebook about this and also pointed to her website: http://www.saramiles.net/ As I said in my “message” I don’t see a blog for her. She does, however, post things like a link to that article there.

Nick – Glad to hear about the no-knead. I probably tediously blog about it when I do it….heh…

I read your comments every day. I don’t think that I am lurking though. Sometimes I comment because I find it appropriate and add to the conversation (which I do think that this is a conversation).
I have often thought about my college professors wanted feedback and commentary from students and generally the lack of comment, especially from less mature conversationalists. I find myself wanting that same kind of response from my students. Now,I understand that old professor, since I am one. It is of course about engaging students with intellectual dialog and seeking some sort of validation/response that someone is listening and thinking about course content. This idea of developing intellectual conversation has become more about getting a grade to get a degree to get a job. This is more to do with teaching at a community college than anything else.
On another issue, I don’t think actually any corporation pays taxes. In all cases, the cost of business including taxes are passed on to the customer, whether it is a product or service. So, corporations are merely tax collectors for the state. The reason for this is that it is easier to collect money from a minority of business because it is perceived as not an individual tax, so it is easier to pass a law in doing this. This perception is used by many people as saying that corporations do not pay their fair share. My comment is that when the tax burden within a state has pushed this to extreme. Business will look to other places to conduct their affairs when it becomes cheaper to operate elsewhere. Yes they want to make a profit. This is the way it should be. After all, the value of work must be assessed in a free market place. This is what determines most retirement incomes for all people in retirement plans, even public employees. Without profits and return of profits to shareholders, there would be no retirement programs and eventually no taxes. These elements of business are what keeps millions or people employed, innovative, and free.

Hey Ray.

I don’t think of you as a lurker since you do comment. By definition, lurkers don’t comment.

On the tax issue, again we just see apples and oranges. I don’t think money makes people free (your last comment). Of course you know that I don’t even believe in the concepts of money or property ownership. I think that innovation is not driven by profit but by imagination. But, Hey. I’m just some wildeyed old ex bar musician…. pay no attention….

In the meantime, thank you for reading my silly blog dude!

I think I would agree with Mr. Hinkle a bit on this subject of taxation and corporations (no surprise right?). For what it’s worth, the way I am conceptualizing this is that “people” pay taxes and a corporation is not a person regardless of perceived “corporate behavior” or propaganda that states the contrary (I believe there is a documentary film about diagnosing a corporation as a having a mental illness out there…). All the people who make up the corporation pay taxes including CEO’s, CIO’s, Management, Administration, Stakeholders, Shareholders, etc. (not trying to master stating the obvious)
However, for arguments sake and in the interest of equality (this tends to drive my thinking) let’s say that Corporations as a whole had to pay taxes in the same manner as we average citizens do. This would lead me to the idea that all entities (again, in the interest of common fairness and equality) that deal in business whether private or public should pay taxes. I could not fathom some of these public entities attempting to pay a high rate of taxes considering many have a hair string budget from the get go.
Also, if Corporations pay taxes, let us look at the overall picture and determine a suitable tax rate. If the average middle class citizen making $50-75K per year has to pay 30% in taxes this would equal roughly a little less than $20K. If the average middle class corporation made $50-75 million at a tax rate of 30% one is looking at $20 million towards taxes = a lot more money than the average middle class citizen, but still it goes into the same pile of tax money at the end of the day.
Just like the average citizen who goes and gets their taxes done a corporation would do the same (again considering that we look at corporation as people because people pay taxes). To me, it only makes sense that both try and lower their overall taxable income in the interest of keeping some of those monies for furthering their interests. A Corporation’s interest is about profit. An average citizen’s interest varies with the citizen, but is still “their” own interest. (We could argue selfishness verses selflessness here, but I’m not going there today).
This statement:
“The really responsible thing would be to make corporations pay their fair share in taxes.”
I can’t wrap my head around because of the “fair share” issues and overall inequality of the statement. Who should determine “fair share”? Most likely the people of the republic would determine this, but often we people cannot agree.
Maybe a more appropriate statement for my purposes could be this:
“The prudent thing would be for a person/corporation, of their own volition, to contribute to society in a meaningful and long lasting manner so as to benefit society as a whole as opposed to being forced into anything.”(Of course this is just off the top of my young and inexperienced little head. I am sure I could develop this sentence into a more profound yet strong statement of moral and ethical argument.)
This leads to the last point that I would contribute as a lurker. It is the continued compromise and breakdown of societies values, business cultural ideologies, and just plain general stubbornness that has driven the philosophical practices people exude; “society owes me” verses “I owe society”. My opinion is that once we as a worldly human community switch these ideas around at a large scale, this will lead to a better way of life. Until then, as a realist my focus is on equality at all levels.
David J

David,

I don’t think of you as a lurker, either, since you do comment.

Where I disagree with you two gentlemen is that I understand corporations operate only at the behest of the state/community and the profit they accrue is not private personal wealth but is regularly siphoned off to stockholders who are mostly concerned about optimizing their investment.

Corporations (like Chevron and AT&T) need to be held accountable at all levels. Taxes and regulations seem to me to be a different concept for an incorporated entity. Untaxed and unregulated (ungoverned if you will) it seems to me that the short term profit at the expense of the society often motivates corporate behavior (consider K street lobbyists in DC). The corporation needs to abide by the rules given to it by us the society whether that is granting land rights for natural resources or allowing broadcasters to broadcast on open airwaves and the internet. Asking it to reserve a portion of its profit to help run the government seems not only fair but basic to me.

But I do admit I’m out of my depth here since there is a lot I don’t know about corporations and taxes and what I think probably isn’t that big a deal.