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| If this is the second or third time you're run across this, I'm sorry - just trying to get the word out. .
Greetings folks,
It is my tremendous pleasure to present to you the very first show produced by Takitaki Entertainment. Irish Christmas in America: The Show will appear at the State Theatre in Kalamazoo on December 5th, 2008 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $27.00 per adult and $20.00 per student/child. Tickets are available at the State Theatre box office or through Ticketmaster at: http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/08004158CDA2417D?artistid=1268543&majorcatid=10005&minorcatid=0 Irish Christmas in America is an incredible tour featuring award-winning traditional Irish group Téada and Celtic-music superstar vocalist Cara Dillon. The show combines music, visuals and dance to create a spellbinding environment or celebration and holiday spirit. The opportunity to produce this show came to me through a crazy, unpredictable series of events and I now find myself somewhere between honored and overwhelmed. I think this will be a fantastic show and a great thing for Southwest Michigan in general. In the spirit of the season I plan on working with Toys for Tots to host a collection site and possibly doing the same for a local holiday food charity. I envision a great performance, a great feeling for all involved, and a great start to the holiday season. Sadly, I can also envision this whole thing blowing up in my face. Truth be told, I need your help. I don’t have the money or experience to promote something like this the same way an agency would, so I’m going to need as much assistance as I can get. Here’s what I’m asking you to do: - Attend the show! If you can make it, come on out for one hell of a concert.
- Bring people to the show! Friends, family, strangers… make it a group outing!
- Tell people about the show! Spread the word, it’s going to be a great time. Use e-mail, snail-mail, networking sites, by phone, in person, smoke signals, semaphore… anything you can think of.
- Help me promote the show! I’ll be organizing a couple of “street team” runs through the Kalamazoo area, but if you’re willing to print/place posters or flyers wherever you are, it can’t hurt!
- Volunteer the day of the show! I’ll need help with a bunch of things… so here’s your chance to meet the artists and lend a hand.
I’ll appreciate any assistance you can provide – and I guarantee if we get into the black on this show those who lend a hand will be rewarded. Please take a moment and consider how you can help me make this a success! Thanks, -Taki | |
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Smiling sadly, he unplugged the machine. She lost it once... never again. Gasping, he asked the betrayer, "Why?" The flashing blade brought great relief. Despite his wounds, he stood up. What she saw stopped her heart. Trembling, she opened the last door. Feeling sated, he dropped the pen. | |
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| Repeated mistakes, missteps, and missed opportunities have sharpened whatever sense I possess that tells me when something is important. I’ve learned to recognize and depend on that sense, so when I felt it earlier this evening I dropped everything to accommodate it. I had been flipping through the channels when I caught a few snippets concerning the Olympic opening ceremonies in Beijing. Something about the reporting grabbed me and I tuned in without knowing particularly why. I enjoy the Olympics every four years, and as someone with international interests it always leaves me with a good feeling. This feeling, however, was something different. It was the undeniable feeling of watching something historically significant, and as I watched the spectacle unfold, I knew that I was witnessing one of the most culturally significant events I’m ever likely to see. I don’t expect people to understand the international significance of the ceremony, nor do I expect everyone to understand the historical ramification. Watch it for the 15,000 performers, watch it for the fireworks, watch it for the 500 foot LCD screen, watch it for sheer beauty of it… but for the love of light just watch it. Find it online, look it up for a repeat broadcast, do whatever you have to do, but watch it – and when you do, know you’re witnessing something important. | |
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| Warning! False E-mail circulating the internet! Don't believe the smear campaign!
Should you receive an e-mail about Obama's tax plan being comically bad for the American people, don't believe it! It is an outright lie.
I have included both the email and the debunking done by Factcheck.org.
Subject: Important read - Taxes
INTERESTING DATA JUST RECEIVED ON TAXES
Spread the word.....
This is something you should be
aware of so you don't get blind-sided.
This is really going to catch a lot
of families off guard. It should
make you worry.
Proposed changes in taxes after 2008 General election:
CAPITAL GAINS TAX
MCCAIN
0% on home sales up to $500,000
per home (couples) McCain does not
propose any change in existing
home sales income tax.
OBAMA
28% on profit from ALL home sales
How does this affect you?
If you sell your home and make a profit, you
will pay 28% of your gain on taxes.
If you are heading toward retirement
and would like to down-size your
home or move into a retirement
community, 28% of the money you
make from your home will go to taxes. This
proposal will adversely affect the
elderly who are counting on the income
from their homes as part of their retirement income.
DIVIDEND TAX
MCCAIN 15% (no change)
OBAMA 39.6%
How will this affect you?
If you have any money invested in stock
market, IRA, mutual funds,
college funds, life insurance, retirement
accounts, or anything that pays
or reinvests dividends, you will now
be paying nearly 40% of the money
earned on taxes if Obama become president.
The experts predict that 'higher
tax rates on dividends and capital gains
would crash the stock market yet
do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit.
INCOME TAX
MCCAIN (no changes)
Single making 30K - tax $4,500
Single making 50K - tax $12,500
Single making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 125K - tax $31,250
OBAMA
(reversion to pre-Bush tax cuts)
Single making 30K - tax $8,400
Single making 50K - tax $14,000
Single making 75K - tax $23,250
Married making 60K - tax $16,800
Married making 75K - tax $21,000
Married making 125K - tax $38,750
Under Obama your taxes will
more than double!
How does this affect you? No explanation
needed. This is pretty
straight forward.
INHERITANCE TAX
MCCAIN 0% (No change, Bush repealed this tax)
OBAMA Restore the inheritance tax
How does this affect you? Many families
have lost businesses,
farms and ranches, and homes
that have
been in their families
for generations because they could not
afford the inheritance tax.
Those willing their assets to loved
ones will not only lose them to
these taxes.
NEW TAXES BEING PROPOSED BY OBAMA
* New government taxes proposed on
homes that are more than
2400 square feet
* New gasoline taxes (as if
gas weren't high enough already)
* New taxes on natural resources
consumption (heating
gas, water, electricity)
* New taxes on retirement accounts
and last but not least....
* New taxes to pay for socialized medicine
so we can receive the same
level of medical care as other
third-world countries!!!
| Alert readers may already have noted that this chain e-mail does not provide links to any of Obama's actual proposals or cite any sources for the claims it makes. That is because they are made up.This widely distributed message is so full of misinformation that we find it impossible to believe that it is the result of simple ignorance or carelessness on the part of the writer. Almost nothing it says about Obama's tax proposals is true. We conclude that this deception is deliberate.
Our own sources for the following are Obama's own Web site and other statements, interviews with Obama's policy advisers, and a comprehensive analysis of both the McCain and Obama tax plans produced by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, plus additional sources to which we have provided links.
- Home Sales: The claim that Obama would impose a 28 percent tax on the profit from "all home sales" is false. Both Obama and McCain would continue to exempt the first $250,000 of gain from the sale of a primary residence ($500,000 for a married couple filing jointly) which results in zero tax on all but a very few home sales.
- Capital Gains Rate: It's untrue that Obama is proposing a 28 percent capital gains tax rate. He said in an interview on CNBC that he favors raising the top rate on capital gains from its present 15 percent to 20 percent or more, but no higher than 28 percent. And as for a 28 percent rate, he added, "my guess would be it would be significantly lower than that." Furthermore, he has said only couples making $250,000 or more (or, his policy advisers tell us, singles making more than $200,000) would pay the higher capital gains rate. That means the large majority of persons who pay capital gains taxes would see no increase at all.
- Tax on Dividends: Another false claim is that Obama proposes to raise the tax rate on dividends to 39.6 percent. Dividends currently are taxed at a top rate of 15 percent, and Obama would raise that to the same rate as he would tax capital gains, somewhere between 20 percent and 28 percent but likely "significantly" lower than 28 percent. This higher tax also would fall only on couples making $250,000 or more or singles making more than $200,000.
- Taxing IRAs and 529s: Contrary to the claim in this e-mail, raising tax rates on capital gains or dividends would not result in higher taxes on any investments held in Individual Retirement Accounts or in popular, tax-deferred "college funds" under section 529 of the Internal Revenue Code. The whole point of such tax-deferred plans is that dividends and capital gains are allowed to accumulate and compound tax-free, and neither Obama nor McCain proposes to change that. And as previously mentioned, any capital gains or dividend income from stocks, bonds or mutual funds owned outside of tax-deferred accounts would continue to be taxed at current rates except for couples making over $250,000, or singles making more than $200,000.
- Doubled Taxes? The claim that "Under Obama your taxes will more than double!" is also false. The comparative rate tables this e-mail provides for McCain and Obama are entirely wrong, as we explained in an earlier article March 13 about another false e-mail from which these tables are copied. It is supposedly a comparison of tax rates before and after the Bush tax cuts, but it grossly overstates the effect of the Bush cuts. Furthermore, Obama proposes to retain the Bush cuts for every single income level shown in this bogus table.
- Estate Tax. The claim that Obama proposes to "restore the inheritance tax" is also false, as are the claims that McCain would impose zero tax and that Bush "repealed" it. McCain and Obama both would retain a reduced version of the estate tax, as it is correctly called, though McCain would reduce it by more.
The tax now falls only on estates valued at more than $2 million (effectively $4 million for couples able to set up the required legal and financial arrangements). It reaches a maximum rate of 45 percent on amounts more than that. It was not repealed, but it is set to expire temporarily in 2010, then return in 2011, when it would apply to estates valued at more than $1 million ($2 million for couples), with the maximum rate rising to 55 percent.
Obama has proposed to apply the tax only to estates valued at more than $3.5 million ($7 million for couples), holding the maximum rate at 45 percent. McCain would apply it to estates worth more than $5 million ($10 million for couples), with a maximum rate of 15 percent.
- "New Tax" Falsehoods: The e-mail continues with a string of made-up taxes that it falsely claims Obama has proposed. He has not proposed a tax on new homes with more than 2,400 square feet, or a new gasoline tax or a tax on retirement accounts. The most laughably false claim is that Obama would tax "water."
Two claims in this message, while not completely false, are still grossly misleading.
The claim that Obama would impose "new taxes on natural resources" may refer to his support for a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions, which indeed would impose large costs on industries burning coal, gas or oil and, indirectly, on their consumers. But McCain also supports cap-and-trade legislation, and even coauthored an early version of a bill that reached the Senate floor this year. Obama's plan would give the federal government more of the revenue from auctioning pollution permits than McCain's plan. Whether cap-and-trade amounts to a "tax" is a matter of interpretation. The fact is neither McCain nor Obama call it that.
There is also some truth to the claim that Obama would impose "new taxes" to finance his health care plan, depending on your interpretation of "new." He has said he would pay for much of his plan "by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for people making more than $250,000 per year, as they are scheduled to do." That would certainly be a tax increase for those high-income persons, compared with what they are paying now. But whether that's imposing a new tax, or just letting an old one come back, depends on your point of view. It may well be that Obama will eventually propose tax increases to finance some of his plan. We've noted before that the "cost savings" that he says will finance much of his plan are inflated and probably won't materialize, according to independent experts we consulted. But it's wrong to say that he's proposing such taxes now.
The short answer to our reader's question is, no, this message isn't real. It's a pack of lies.
-Brooks Jackson
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| I've come to the conclusion that I was born to live in college towns. There's something about the atmosphere, the energy, the youthful enthusiasm that pervades this sort of place that sits very well with me. Right now I find it to be complementary to my own goals and ambitions, but if the observations of some of my colleagues are any indication, I'll someday find that this environment keeps an aging spirit young when life and time might otherwise conspire to leave me drained and bitter. My friends Kurt and Dana Troutman noted that they felt a tangible shift in the energy around them as they neared the University. I know full well what they meant, and while I lack the words to properly explain the phenomenon, I don't feel particularly pressed to do so. The synergy and life surrounding a place of learning is discernible enough to be real without having to be qualified. They came down to visit me here in my new apartment (though I suppose “new” is a misnomer, I've been here since January) and to attend a lecture with me. Taking advantage of what is certainly another fringe benefit of living in a college town, I was able to arrange for the three of us to see the Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak a mere 200 yards from my front door. Spending two hours in the company of an international legend is quite the experience, and while I could go on for pages about what Desmond Tutu said I simply cannot do it justice. Noted historian, philosopher and anthropologist Will Durant speaks of heroes and genius in his essay "A Shameless Worship of Heroes". Durant argues that we have lost due reverence for those among us who seem to transcend the limitations of mankind. He writes, "…for why should we stand reverent before waterfalls and mountaintops, or a summer moon on a quiet sea, and not before the highest miracle of all: a man who is both a great and good?" Sitting there, listening to Desmond Tutu, I felt Durant's highest miracle. Kurt mentioned later that the passing of nearly 20 years had robbed the Archbishop of much of his fire and that the Desmond Tutu Kurt had seen in South Africa was full of passion and bombast. He seemed a little sad that time had cooled Tutu’s fervor, and while I wish I could've seen him in his prime, I welcomed the grandfatherly sage who smiled and spoke like a man who had found a great peace within himself and had spent a worthy lifetime laboring to bring such a peace to the world. I will only share two accounts of that evening, for the rest are mine alone. The first concerns the only assembly of people of which I have been truly and devastatingly envious. In his great wisdom, Nelson Mandela saw fit to assemble a group of the world's foremost scholars, activists and leaders for the purpose of giving counsel to the world and addressing some of its most pressing issues. This group, titled "The Elders" consists of: Nelson Mandela and his wife, Mozambican activist Graça Machel, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former Irish President Mary Robinson; Nobel Peace Prize winners Desmond Tutu and former United States President Jimmy Carter, Grameen Bank founder and microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus, former Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, Indian trade union leader and SEWA founder Ela Bhatt, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Algerian ambassador and veteran U.N. envoy and advisor Lakhdar Brahimi, and former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. This group has traveled to Darfur, Palestine, Northern Ireland and a number of other places to see with their own eyes the troubles of the world and offer solutions born of their immense perspective and experience. I cannot adequately express what I would've given to accompany that group on those excursions. I join Will Durant in his shameless worship of heroes, and The Elders are some who rightly receive my adoration. The second story I will share is a very personal anecdote the Archbishop told about his dear friend, the Dalai Lama. In talking about the beauty and decency of humankind, Tutu cited the Dalai Lama as a prime example of the goodness in humanity winning out despite hardship and tragedy. The two are apparently very close, leading the normally stoic Dalai Lama to reveal more of his personality around the Archbishop than he might otherwise show. Unknown to most of the world, the Dalai Lama has a something of a mischievous streak. The tale goes that he and Desmond were sharing a few sly jokes and were up to the kind of antics that true friends perpetrate on one another when they were approached by some members of the media. Desmond noticed the reporters first and while collecting himself whispered (with his beaming smile and glorious accent), "Shhh, shhh… the cameras are on us. Try to act like a holy man!” The thought of these two great leaders giggling like schoolboys and sharing an intrinsically human moment of mirth and friendship brought a glow to my heart. I don't care what the cynics say. I don't care about the jaded, soulless realists who insist on robbing humanity of its evanescent spirit. I offer this as my transcendent proof of hope. Here again is ample evidence of the light. Inspired, the tempest rages on. | |
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| Welcome to the world, Aisling Elizabeth Roisin Dewald!
Jenny and Jim Dewald would like to announce that their daughter, Aisling Elizabeth Roisin Dewald, was born at 8:23pm on July 15th, 2008.
Baby Aisling (an Irish name akin to Ashlynn and meaning “Dream” or “Vision”) weighed 8lbs 1oz and was19 inches long. Both she and her mother are in good health and are resting comfortably.
Jim comments that the experience has been “unlike anything else he has done in this life”, even though, as he readily admits, “Jenny did all of the work.”
As of 10:12pm, Baby Aisling had already enjoyed her first meal and was beginning a lifelong career of being the subject of her parent’s unending adoration.
Cards and letters are welcome at this time, and the family will make it known when they can accommodate phone calls and personal visits. Considering her parents, Aisling will almost certainly be making a party appearance sometime soon. Photos and additional details will be forthcoming as they are made available.
-Happy Polynesian (Uncle) News Service
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| And the seventh angel poured forth his bowl, and a voice cried out from the throne of heaven...
IT IS DONE.
They tore him down,
they lied about his religion,
they lied about his history,
they called him inexperienced,
they called him naive,
they called their strategy "the kitchen sink",
they said only delegates mattered,
they said only pledged delegates mattered,
they said only primary pledged delegates mattered,
they said primary pledged delegates shouldn't matter, only the popular vote should matter.
they said to count every vote,
they said to count every vote except 250,000+ in Michigan,
they said to count every vote except 250,000+ in Michigan and all the votes in caucus states,
they appealed to superdelegates to decide the election,
they said superdelegates shouldn't decide the election,
they voted to put rules in place to prevent states from moving up their primaries,
they voted to revoke the delegates from those states that broke the rules,
they demanded the states that had moved their primaries have their delegates counted, even though they broke the rules,
they condemned the Democratic Rules Committee for following the rules,
they changed the rules,
they moved the goalposts...
...and none of it mattered.
They couldn't stop him.
They couldn't stop us.
Tonight, Barack Obama crossed the delegate threshold and became the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States. He did so running on the belief that Hope and the potential for positive change have the ability to overcome the entrenched cynicism and real-politiks that have brought our nation to the brink of ruin.
On to November, on to the general election, on to Victory. | |
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| A bit from this Newsweek article. "In his 2005 book "Everything Bad Is Good for You," Steven Johnson argued that fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons are cognitively demanding, requiring players to build "elaborate fantasy narratives—all by rolling twenty-sided dice and consulting bewildering charts that accounted for a staggering number of variables." Players must calculate the effect of various combinations of weapon, opponent and allies "that would leave most kids weeping if you put the same charts on a math quiz," Johnson wrote. They must use deductive reasoning to infer rules as they go, such as the use of various implements, what you need to do to level-up, intermediary goals, who's friend and who's foe. The games challenge you to identify cause and effect—Johnson describes how SimCity taught his 7-year-old nephew that high tax rates in a city's industrial zone can deter manufacturers from relocating there—and to figure out nested goals, such as the need to find the tool to get the weapon to beat the enemy to cross the moat to reach the castle to ( phew) save the princess. This is nothing if not hypothesis testing and problem solving, and games such as Final Fantasy exercise it no less than figuring out where cars traveling toward one another from 450 miles apart, one at 50mph and one at 60mph, will meet." Good to know we haven't been wasting our time all these years by enjoying ourselves, developing social skills, networking, problem solving and increasing our cognative capacity. I'd hate to think we were just playing games. :P Now if we could only get the religious right to realize that more often than not we're fighting the demons, not summoning them. One battle at a time, I suppose. | |
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| Nothing soothes political aggrivation like success. I'm off to celebrate a near-perfect first semester with my new Ph.D. buddy Anthony.
Here's to getting the first one in the books, folks. Slainte! -Edit: turns out Yunanto was there too, crazy little Indonesian guy - He's a lot of fun. I do like this department thus far. | |
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azurethunder's journal
